Staffers at the remnants of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the foreign aid agency dismantled at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, have been instructed to destroy AIDS/HIV drugs and other life-saving medicines once earmarked for distribution … if they can’t sell them first.

“The mandate that [the USAID negotiator] has been given is ‘get us money for it, and if you can’t do that, we’re just going to trash it,’” someone with knowledge of the situation told The Washington Post.

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Atul Gawande, a former assistant USAID administrator, described the potential destruction of the drugs as “inconceivable,” while former USAID head Andrew Natsios called the decision “nuts.”

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“At this point, just give it away instead of destroying it, for heaven’s sakes,” he told The Post.

Asked to comment, a senior State Department official said the story is “fake news” and “full of inaccuracies.”

The items still in storage in Belgium and the UAE, once destined for distribution to 18 African nations, include over 50,000 vials of PrEP medications, several million packets of oral birth control, hundreds of thousands of implantable contraceptive devices, nearly 2 million doses of injectable contraceptives, and 26 million condoms.

Trump cut off USAID funding in January, saying the humanitarian organization is “not aligned with American interests.”

Other international humanitarian aid groups and organizations have been in talks with State Department officials about taking control of the products and distributing them, but negotiations have stalled as political leadership demanded payment for the materials and dictated USAID labeling be removed, according to the Post’s sources, who requested anonymity because they feared retaliation.

Much of the material is now approaching expiration dates.

Some types of aid cut off after Trump took office, including medical supplies deemed lifesaving, have since resumed, but shipments of contraceptives and some medications to prevent HIV infection have not.

That aligns with the influence wielded by Christian conservatives in the State Department in the president’s second term.

Political appointees in the department drove an initial effort to destroy the contraceptives and HIV medications, saying in meetings that destruction would align with administration goals.

Peter Marocco, who was appointed by Trump as deputy USAID administrator in February, said at a political conference in 2023 that U.S. aid policy then was “not consistent with promoting good family values.”

Officials said the political team’s focus on destroying the material diminished after staff warned that destruction would be costly, and after Marocco left in March.

In a statement to The Post, Marocco said that “this meaningless story is absurd,” adding, “It’s shameful that treacherous appointees put such sabotage out there to embarrass the President — unworthy of comment.”

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