The amount of our taxpayer dollars going to things overseas that should have been used here all along has been astounding to see. DOGE has done a fantastic job of rooting out waste and fraud, but now that some of these things have been axed by President Donald Trump, the effects are starting to take place and the media is trying to take the opportunity to make you see how heartless we are for stopping all this aid.
Reuters, in particular, decided to go into a full-on report about how Trump's 90-day pause on foreign aid and his coming down on USAID has lead to serious dangers in containing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa:
Emmanuel Cherem, a 25-year-old gay man in Nigeria, tested positive for HIV two months after U.S. President Donald Trump's administration cut access for at-risk groups like gay men and injecting drug users to medication that prevents infection.
Cherem admits he should have been more careful about practicing safe sex but had become accustomed to using the U.S.-supplied pharmaceutical. The drug - known as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP - is typically taken daily as a tablet and can reduce the risk of contracting HIV through sex by 99%.
"I blame myself... Taking care of myself is my first duty as a person," Cherem said at his gym in Awka, the capital of Nigeria's southeastern state of Anambra.
"I equally blame the Trump administration because, you know, these things were available, and then, without prior notice, these things were cut off."
Reuters even went so far as to create a melancholic video report meant to both make you feel guilty and scare you into thinking that HIV will soon show up at your door:
Four gay men in Africa told @Reuters they tested positive for HIV since President Trump ordered cuts to a program that funded deliveries of a drug that curbed sexual transmission of the virus https://t.co/vtVkY693c2 pic.twitter.com/Mj3eOLceCw
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 20, 2025
According to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), we've spent a whopping $110 billion fighting AIDS abroad since 2003, and we don't get much help from other nations when doing so. We cover around 70 to 80 percent of all donor funding in Africa for this purpose, meaning that every other country combined doesn't do as much as we do. For comparison, the next highest donor was the UK at $714 million.
Meanwhile, the CDC is reporting that 100,000 Americans are dying from drug overdoses every year, and we have our own HIV rates skyrocketing, thanks in part to America's drug problem.
Here's another infuriating fact. In the Reuters report, it shows this money was also going to sex work:
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic. Trump's cuts have restricted the availability of drugs that millions of Africans have taken to prevent infection - particularly vulnerable communities such as gay men and sex workers - as aid groups and public health systems in Africa strove to roll back the disease.
Again, we're seeing patterns of abuse for foreign aid, and cutting this would only make all the sense in the world.
Media like Reuters want to scare you and say that doing this will only spread the virus, and soon, it will become an issue here in the States, but it already is. Moreover, we already have an issue with debt thanks to reckless spending, a lot of which is useless foreign aid programs that other nations don't help with nearly as much as they should, if we're to help at all.
The way I see this... none of this is our problem.
It seems to me that the U.S. has been subsidizing gay sex and prostitution in Africa, effectively encouraging this risky lifestyle thanks to all the safety nets we placed underneath it. Funneling money endlessly to a cause that abuses the funding anyway isn't just foolish, it only seems to make the problem worse. If other countries are so concerned about it, then they can feel free to step up and put more money into it.
Sorry to the four gay guys who can't suddenly get meds for their HIV infections... but maybe they should've been more careful.
If we keep picking up the tab without cease, then we're teaching everyone, including other countries, that they don't have to put any more effort than they already do into it. Their inclusion is more symbolic than helpful.
All-in-all, this sounds like a them problem. Don't want to get AIDS? Practice safe sex, or don't have sex at all if there's a risk associated. Doing something could result in you getting a deadly disease gets a Darwin award, and that's been known since we were painting on cave walls. Perhaps what Africa needs isn't more money to fund sexual habits, but a bit more accountability for its population's own stupid decisions.
But let's face facts... this isn't about AIDS in Africa for the media.
This is all about trying to make Trump seem like the heartless, irresponsible leader for allowing this to happen to these poor sex workers and African homosexuals. They're dying!
The media didn't seem to care about white South Africans being targeted for murder...
This is really just an anti-Trump hit. Plain and simple.
