Trump wants an end to HIV in the United States by 2030

An AIDS ribbon at the White House.
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump announced in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that by 2030, he wants to see HIV eradicated in the United States.

"In recent years, we have made remarkable progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS," Trump said. "Scientific breakthroughs have brought a once-distant dream within reach. My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years. We have made incredible strides, incredible. Together, we will defeat AIDS in America, and beyond."

The Centers for Disease Control says the annual number of new HIV diagnoses has been stable for the last several years, with 38,739 people diagnosed in 2017. Black gay and bisexual men are most affected by HIV, and it's estimated that about 1.1 million people in the U.S. have HIV.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Trump didn't go into detail about the strategy to combat HIV, but The Washington Post reports that unspecified resources will be sent to 48 counties and "hot spots" with high rates of infections. No one is working in the Office of National AIDS Policy, and until late December, no one was on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, after several members quit in protest over Trump's lack of action; Trump later fired the rest.

Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.