Trump Administration Reshapes PEPFAR into Slimmer, Streamlined Program

One astonishing element of the second Trump administration is the radical Left’s hapless pattern of choosing to fight on what amounts to political quicksand. In the latest installment of this phenomenon, The New York Times complains that “the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) … has apportioned only $2.9 billion of $6 billion appropriated by Congress for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief [PEPFAR].” That’s right. The Trump administration is saving billions in taxpayer dollars, and the Times wants you to be mad about it.

I commend the article for its comedic value. “If Congress does not intervene, the funds will have been effectively cut, as the period for their use has passed,” they complain, paraphrasing a former congressional aide for a senator who left Congress 18 years ago. (Oh no! Tell me it’s not true!) “Then [OMB Director Russ] Vought has achieved the goal that he wanted, which was to reduce funding for PEPFAR,” the former aide said. (Well, if Vought and Trump want it, it’s clearly a bad idea. As I suggested, the comedy is top notch.)

However, I cannot commend the article for its journalistic curiosity. In 29 paragraphs, the closest the author comes to explaining why the Trump administration is running PEPFAR on a tighter budget are two passing references to candidate Trump “vowing to slash government spending and terminate many foreign aid programs” and “Mr. Vought’s stated belief that the executive branch can use the budget office forcibly to shrink the size of government.” Never does the author consider whether PEPFAR is an appropriate application of these generic goals.

The truth is, conservatives have been sounding the alarm for years, arguing that PEPFAR — once a wholesome program with broad, bipartisan support — “has been hijacked by the Left to promote abortion and LGBT ideology abroad,” as Family Research Council Senior Fellow Jody Hice summarized.

“This is a program that had a very good start, good intention,” said Max Primorac, a Heritage Foundation senior fellow who worked in USAID during the first Trump administration. The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa “was a real crisis. Millions were on the verge of dying, and President Bush and a lot of faith leaders came together to respond to it. And they did an amazing job.”

“But we’re in year 23, 24 of what is an emergency program,” Primorac continued on “Washington Watch.” “After a while, you had a self-serving industry get involved in turning it into a permanent entitlement program, especially for themselves.”

This industry capture of the PEPFAR program results in two negative consequences. First, it means that “at least half of the money never leaves D.C.,” said Primorac. PEPFAR receives “closer to $7 billion,” but “about $3.5 billion, if not more, of that money [is] staying here inside Washington, D.C. to effectively serve as a money pot for the Left.”

As Primorac suggested, the second consequence is that “monies … are diverted to support abortion, the LGBT gender ideology, and other things that simply do not have the support of the American people.” This is because “the foreign aid industry also has been taken hostage by the extreme Left,” he explained. “When you look at the folks who are doing this kind of work, 98% of their political donations go to left-wing candidates.”

“I think what this administration is doing, and correctly so, is seeing where can [they] really maximize the help. Take out the corrupt middle and empower Africans to start providing their own social services,” Primorac proposed. “I’ve done work on this, and others [have]. … You can literally cut the program in half and get better outcomes by simply removing this very bloated middle.”

This is not some evil idea cooked up by a racist White House to deprive poor Africans of life-saving medicine, Primorac contended. “Every administration, whether it’s Democrat or Republican, has always talked about localization. And that is: working directly with African partners, especially the churches that are the mainstay of providing medical care to Africans throughout the continent … because they’ve got the talent there on the ground. And eliminate that very expensive and bureaucratic middle, the international NGOs, the U.N. agencies, for-profit contractors.”

“This president has been so committed to respecting the American taxpayer. The DOGE came in and did amazing work. They’re still doing amazing work,” Primorac concluded. What PEPFAR needs is not a bigger slush fund for D.C.-based organizations to dip into, but a slimmed-down version that re-focuses the program on stopping disease in Africa by actually empowering Africans. “The administration is doing it. It’s looking very closely at where the money is going,” he added. And that’s what the Left can’t stand.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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