Madonna slams Donald Trump administration for canceling World AIDS Day commemorations
Get the inside track from Roisin O'Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear ThisGet our free music newsletter Now Hear ThisGet our free music newsletter Now Hear ThisMadonna has slammed the Donald Trump administration for its decision to not acknowledge World AIDS Day this year, describing it as “ridiculous” and “absurd”.The U,S. State Department reportedly instructed employees and grantees earlier this month to not use federal funding to commemorate the day. The department noted that it was now government policy to “refrain from messaging on any commemorative days”, the New York Times reported Wednesday.The decision ended a decades-long tradition of the U.S. government recognising people killed by AIDS and raising awareness about the disease on December 1.In an Instagram post Monday, Madonna called what she described as the decision to “ask the general public to pretend it never happened” an “unthinkable” and ridiculous” idea.“Today is World AIDS Day. For four decades, this day has been internationally recognized around the world by people from all walks of life, because millions of people’s lives have been touched by the HIV crisis,” the “Like A Prayer” singer said.“People have lost lovers and husbands and wives and girlfriends and boyfriends and mothers and daughters and children to this deadly disease, of which there is still no cure. Donald Trump has announced that World AIDS Day should no longer be acknowledged. It’s one thing to order federal agents to refrain from commemorating this day, but to ask the general public to pretend it never happened is ridiculous, it’s absurd, it’s unthinkable.”Madonna, a longtime advocate for AIDS awareness, has previously spoken about the friends and collaborators she has lost to the disease, including her former roommate Martin Burgoyne, ballet teacher and mentor Christopher Flynn, and the artist Keith Haring.Without naming anyone, the popstar talked about her personal losses to AIDS, writing: “I bet he’s never watched his best friend die of AIDS, held their hand, and watched the blood drain from their face as they took their last breath at the age of 23.”Madonna hosts the auction during the amfAR's Cinema Against AIDS 2008 benefit during the 61st International Cannes Film Festival in 2008 (Getty Images)“The list of people that I have known and loved and lost to AIDS is pretty long. I’m sure many of you out there can relate,” she continued.“Let me say it one more time – there still isn’t a cure for AIDS and people still die from it. I refuse to acknowledge that these people have died in vain. And I will continue to honor World AIDS Day, and I hope you will honor it with me.”Madonna donated concert proceeds from her 1987 “Who’s That Girl” tour, which raised $400,000, to research charity amfAR and included a leaflet titled “The Facts About AIDS” in her 1989 album insert to promote safer-sex practices.In a statement to the NYT, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said: “An awareness day is not a strategy. Under the leadership of President Trump, the State Department is working directly with foreign governments to save lives and increase their responsibility and burden sharing.”Since 1988, World AIDS Day has been recognised internationally as an occasion to raise awareness and mourn the people killed by the life-threatening disease, which is caused by HIV.The U.N.’s Aids agency forecast millions more HIV infections globally by 2030 after Trump cancelled three-quarters of the world’s funding for HIV earlier this year. Although the administration later resumed funding, it proposed cutting the funding for the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief program by $1.9bn in the 2026 fiscal year. The proposal, though, is yet to be finalised by Congress.
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