What to Know
On December 1, as the World Health Organization recognized World AIDS Day, the United States didn’t participate for the first time since the awareness day was created in 1988. This year, the Trump administration chose to not commemorate the day, and the State Department even told employees and grantees to “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day,” per The New York Times. Many people, including Madonna, did not agree with this decision at all. The 67-year-old “Material Girl” singer took to social media to make her feelings about President Donald Trump very clear.
She finds it ‘ridiculous.’
In a statement, Madonna urged her followers to recognize World AIDS Day in spite of Trump’s decision. She also mentioned Trump in her post, calling his decision “absurd.”
“Today is World AIDS Day,” she wrote on December 1. “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. 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.”
Then, she mentioned the president directly. “Donald Trump has announced that World AIDS Day should no longer be acknowledged,” she continued. “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.”
Maybe Trump has never lost someone to AIDS, Madonna suggested.
In her post, she continued with, “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.”
Former President Joe Biden commemorated World AIDS Day in 2024 by spreading the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the White House South Lawn. In a lengthy proclamation, he described the quilt as “a memorial for all those we have lost to AIDS and AIDS-related illnesses.”
The beginning of his proclamation read, “Despite our progress, over 39 million people worldwide continue to live with it, including over 1 million people in the United States. On World AIDS Day, we honor the memory of all those we tragically lost to HIV around the world. We stand in solidarity with all those who are courageously facing the disease today. And we renew our commitment to accelerating efforts to finally end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
This year, in spite of Trump’s silence on World AIDS Day, Madonna encouraged her followers to recognize the awareness day anyway. “The list of people that I have known and loved and lost to AIDS is pretty long,” she continued. “I’m sure many of you out there can relate. 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.”
