WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is drawing outrage for terminating formal U.S. commemoration of World AIDS Day, directing U.S. State Department officials at home around the globe to “refrain from publicly promoting” it through social media or other communication channels.
World AIDS Day has been marked annually on Dec. 1 since 1988, when it was initiated by the World Health Organization. The event is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic, spreading information about halting the spread of HIV infection, and remembering those who have died of the disease.
Every U.S. president has issued an official annual proclamation for World AIDS Day since Bill Clinton started doing so in 1993.
President Donald Trump’s decision not to do so for 2025 was reported after the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) released an analysis detailing the harms done by his administration’s sweeping foreign assistance cuts.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration temporarily halted HIV-related funding, sending global response efforts into “crisis mode,” UNAIDS said. Though Trump ultimately dropped a proposal to slash hundreds of millions of dollars from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the administration’s throttling of funds forced clinics to shut down and disrupted key community programs, the report states.
“The funding crisis has exposed the fragility of the progress we fought so hard to achieve,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS. “Behind every data point in this report are people—babies and children missed for HIV screening or early HIV diagnosis, young women cut off from prevention support, and communities suddenly left without services and care. We cannot abandon them. We must overcome this disruption and transform the AIDS response.”
At least 2.5 million people have lost access to medicines needed to block HIV infection due to cuts made by Trump since he took office.
In its reporting on the Trump administration’s decision to halt official commemoration of World AIDS Day, the New York Times pointed to studies suggesting that “cuts by the United States and other countries could result in 10 million additional HIV infections, including one million among children, and three million additional deaths over the next five years.”
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), head of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, said in a statement that “silence is not neutrality; it is harm.” He called on the administration to “immediately reverse this decision and recommit our fight against HIV/AIDS.”
The nonprofit group Truth Wins Out called Trump’s action “a middle finger to the LGBTQ community.” It said his cancellation of the World AIDS Day commemoration was “unconscionable and unforgivable,” an action “fueled by raw bigotry and fealty to his Project 2025 masters.”
This article, which originally appeared at Common Dreams, has been updated with further information.
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