- Trump's Firing Sets Back AIDS Prevention Efforts Politico by Brianna Ehley — President Donald Trump's decision to fire his HIV/AIDS advisory panel and refusal to fill other key policy positions puts the U.S. at risk of slipping backward on prevention just as the opioid epidemic threatens to spread the virus among intravenous drug users. The advisory panel, which has existed in some form since the Reagan years, sits empty after Trump removed all 16 of its remaining members last week. That, combined with proposed massive cuts to prevention programs in Trump's fiscal 2018 budget and his not naming a director for the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, sends troubling signals about the administration's commitment and represents a marked departure from his predecessors, say advocates and lawmakers.