‘Four Gay Men in Africa’ Test Positive for HIV, Reuters Blames Trump
by
In a now-viral Reuters story, the corporate media has found a new scapegoat for a global health crisis: President Donald Trump.
HIV infections are spiking in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the Reuters article, however, it’s not the fault of decades of underinvestment by local governments, failing international NGOs, or endemic healthcare inequality.
No, it’s the fault of a U.S. president thousands of miles away, who has only been back in office for five months.
It would be laughable if it weren’t so grotesquely cynical.
Reuters tells the story of Emmanuel Cherem, a 25-year-old gay man in Nigeria who recently tested positive for HIV.
Cherem’s heartbreak is real, and his situation is tragic.
Yet, the “journalist” wastes no time leveraging it for a hit piece against Trump, suggesting that a temporary pause on U.S. foreign aid early in his administration is responsible for his diagnosis and, by extension, the worsening AIDS crisis in Africa.
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
This is the media at its worst: cynical, manipulative, and allergic to context.
HIV/AIDS is a decades-old global health catastrophe, deeply intertwined with local policy failures, social stigma, economic injustice, and corrupt governance.
But rather than report on those structural realities, Reuters opts for a more convenient narrative of blaming Trump.
Never mind that Trump merely paused funding temporarily to audit how taxpayer dollars were being used.