Trump Once Vowed To End HIV in America. His Funding Cuts Are Rolling Back Progress.

In his first term, President Donald Trump promised to end America’s HIV epidemic — and he put the resources of the federal government behind the effort. This time, he has deployed the powers of his office to gut funding, abandoning those communities at highest risk of HIV.

Health care groups across the South are scaling back HIV testing and outreach because of the Trump administration’s budget cuts and layoffs.

A small clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is no longer offering people HIV testing. The AIDS Services Coalition’s grant for HIV prevention from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been delayed for months — a situation linked partly to CDC layoffs that included grant administrators. The coalition couldn’t afford to run the clinic with no promise of reimbursement.

At a recent event in Jackson, nonprofit groups offered free hoagies, showers, blood pressure checks, and HIV tests to people in need. The organizers commiserated over notices they’d received days earlier, cutting hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding that had been swept up in the Trump administration’s termination of research dollars and clawback of more than $11 billion from health departments nationwide. That would mean feeding fewer people and offering less care.

The loss could prove tragic, said June Gipson, CEO of the health care group My Brother’s Keeper. People who lack stable housing, transportation, or access to health care often need extra support to get tested for HIV or to stay on treatment. Otherwise, Gipson said, more people will become sicker with HIV and stand a greater chance of spreading the virus to others.

Directors of other community-based groups in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee told KFF Health News they too reduced spending on HIV testing and outreach because of delayed or slashed federal funds — or fears of more cuts to come.

This is a particular problem in the South, as the region accounted for half of the nation’s new HIV cases in 2022. Southern states also heavily rely on federal funds: Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana put zero state funds into HIV prevention last year, compared with half of Colorado’s budget coming from the state and 88% of New York’s.

“When you are in the South, you need the federal government,” Gipson said.

Since February, My Brother’s Keeper has lost a succession of grants. The National Institutes of Health pulled one worth $12 million, not even two years into a 10-year project, meant to tackle inequities. The NIH’s termination letter echoed executive orders attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion. Next, the group lost a CDC award to reduce health disparities. More cuts are on the horizon if Congress passes the Trump administration’s proposed budget, which slashes the CDC’s budget by $3.59 billion. And its plan, leaked in April, for the Department of Health and Human Services eliminates all funding for Trump’s first-term initiative “Ending the HIV Epidemic.” From 2017 to 2022, new HIV infections decreased by 21% in the cities and Southern states it targeted.

“We’re seeing an about-face of what it means to truly work towards ending HIV in this country,” said Dafina Ward, executive director of the Southern AIDS Coalition.