Trump Terminated All Members Of HIV/AIDS Council Without Explanation

The White House has fired the members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), the council’s executive director, Kay Hayes, confirmed to HuffPost on Friday.

The council, which still had 16 members, was then completely decimated with a letter sent through FedEx on Wednesday, the Washington Blade first reported.

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“Current members of Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) received a letter informing them that the Administration was terminating their appointments” on Dec. 27, 2017, Hayes told HuffPost in a statement sent via email.

“They were also thanked for their leadership, dedication and commitment to the effort. Changing the makeup of federal advisory committee members is a common occurrence during Administration changes,” the statement read.

Six members of the council had earlier resigned in June due to “a president who simply does not care,” according to one member in a Newsweek op-ed entitled “Trump doesn’t care about HIV. We’re outta here.”

SAUL LOEB VIA GETTY IMAGES
A red ribbon in recognition of World AIDS Day hangs from the North Portico of the White House in Washington, D.C.
One source with knowledge of PACHA told the Washington Blade that “many council members were terminated even though additional time remained on their terms as advisers.”

PACHA is a federal advisory committee created in 1995 with the goal of “providing information, advice, and recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding programs, policies, and research to promote effective treatment, prevention, and cure of HIV disease and AIDS.”

As of September, President Donald Trump signed an executive order renewing PACHA for an additional year so the move to fire the current council without explanation seems brash. One of those members ― Gabriel Maldonado, CEO of the Riverside, Calif.-based LGBT and HIV/AIDS group Truevolution ― told the Washington Blade, however, that “it is common for appointees to be terminated and for folks to kind of want their own people in.”