When she saw the news on TikTok and CNN that the United States would halt funding HIV medication, Gwendolyn Dube, a 36-year-old single mother in South Africa who was diagnosed with AIDS as a child, thought to herself, “People are going to die.”

In his first week back in office, President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would exit the World Health Organization and implemented, via an executive order on “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” a 90-day pause on the disbursement of all foreign aid.

This included pausing all funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

PEPFAR, according to the State Department, has saved the lives of approximately 20 million people since it was created by George W. Bush in 2003. The $6.5 billion annual program has historically enjoyed wide bipartisan support and the praise of public health professionals and AIDS service organizations. But Republicans in Congress have been targeting it for the last several years, as part of a domestic and international campaign against the health of LGBTQ people and people living with HIV.

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Marco Rubio’s USAID “Humanitarian Waiver” Isn’t Helping Restart Lifesaving Programs

The ramifications of Trump’s global aid funding ban were swift. Responding to a “stop-work order” issued by the United States to its global partner organizations, Health Policy Watch reported that clinics began to close across the continent of Africa immediately. Despite a waiver from Secretary of State Marco Rubio supposedly excluding “life-saving” aid from the freeze, health and humanitarian groups have remained uncertain if they can proceed. Fearing future funding cuts means they can no longer budget and are instead cutting costs or scrambling to find other means of funding.

The effects are already being felt worldwide. One Beirut, Lebanon-based nongovernmental organization employee, speaking to The Intercept under the condition of anonymity in order to preserve their job, said their place of work — a well-known U.S. international organization that responds to humanitarian crises — started issuing staff “a termination acknowledgement letter by HR,” making clear they could be laid off soon. What will happen to the people who rely on their care, the employee worries. “Now of course it will be really hard for them.”

Sara Abu Zaki, the executive director of Marsa Sexual Health Center in Beirut, had similar feelings. “Our biggest concern would be any implication on the availability of free antiretroviral therapy as a result of the discontinuation of aid,” she said.

The PEPFAR program is administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Rubio announced this week that he is acting administrator of USAID and confirmed the de-facto takeover of the humanitarian agency by the State Department. Under Rubio is another Trump appointee, Pete Marocco, who, as the State Department’s head of foreign assistance, drafted the directive to freeze nearly all foreign aid. Marocco served at USAID during Trump’s first term, during which his attempts to cut funding drove USAID staffers to write a dissent memo that pushed him out.

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Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza

In January, The Intercept reported on the story of a young man in Gaza living with HIV, whose access to lifesaving antiretroviral medications was threatened by the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine. But while the Gaza ceasefire has brought hope to dozens of Palestinians desperately in need of HIV medication, the Trump executive order means tens of millions of people are now facing........

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