Trump’s HIV Funding Cuts Have Closed Clinics, Cut Off Treatment, And Cost 16,000 Jobs
Two new studies presented at the International AIDS Society conference in Rio de Janeiro have put hard numbers to the damage caused by the Trump administration’s cuts to global HIV funding. Since the money was frozen in early 2025, more than 1,700 clinics have closed and over 16,000 health workers have lost their jobs.
The funding in question flows through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), much of it delivered by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Created by George W. Bush in 2003, PEPFAR is credited with saving 26 million lives across more than 50 countries.
The program’s money was halted soon after Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, and USAID itself was dismantled. What happens when a safety net that large is pulled away in a matter of weeks?
What The New Research Found
The first study comes from amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, which surveyed 166 organisations across 46 countries. Delayed or cancelled awards in 2025 shut at least 1,700 service sites and laid off more than 16,000 staff.
Because the survey covered only about a quarter of PEPFAR’s recipients, the real totals are several times higher. Prevention was hit hardest of all, with spending down 51 per cent from 2024 to 2025.
The second study looked at children. PEPFAR-supported treatment reached roughly 77,000 fewer children in 2025 than the year before, an average drop of 14 per cent, and some countries fell much further. Kids are the most exposed. As Ramona Godbole of the Clinton Health Access Initiative put it, they “can get very sick very quickly without access to drugs.”
Nearly three-quarters of funded groups stopped at least one service for the people most at risk, among them sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender clients and people who use drugs. New rules make it worse.
An expanded Mexico City Policy now strips funding from any group that acknowledges transgender identity or runs diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. About half of those surveyed reported disrupted supplies of condoms, lab materials and antiretroviral drugs.
“Even if a site doesn’t close, what you’re seeing is longer wait times, and fewer staff, and nonfunctioning data systems,” said Jennifer Sherwood, amFAR’s director of research and public policy.
Washington Says the Studies Are Wrong
The State Department rejects the findings. It told The New York Times it had not verified the report but could “categorically say that its methodology is flawed,” and claimed the cuts had resulted in “strengthening PEPFAR.” The researchers disagree. The system left behind, amFAR’s Elise Lankiewicz warned, is “really a treatment-heavy model, which isn’t really conducive to controlling the HIV epidemic long-term.”
