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Gabriel Maldonado, a former member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, spoke about Trump's efforts to decimate the group.
During Christmas and New Year's Day, Donald Trump fired the remaining 16 members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS “without explanation via a letter from FedEx.” No replacements have been named.
One of those commission members let go was Gabriel Maldonado — executive director of the LGBT HIV group Truevolution — who told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday he had no idea he was going to be terminated.
The firings came Wednesday, and many of the members still had time remaining on their terms. They had been invited to reapply Tuesday. Six members had resigned in June, protesting the Trump administration’s lack of action regarding the disease. Some speculate the firings are retribution for the mass exodus from last year.
"My HIV doesn't have a term limit," Maldonado told Maddow. "It doesn't expire or leave when a new administration comes... to put political ideology or partisanship at the forefront in the decision-making is not only damaging to the work that we have done but it's also stagnating for advancing the lives and health outcomes of those of us living with HIV and the communities hardest impacted."
Watch below:
