Trump Extorting Zambia: Cutting AIDS Medication From 1.3 Million People Unless it Hands Over its Minerals

Trump’s government has given Zambia until Wednesday to hand over its mineral rights or lose the AIDS medication keeping 1.3 million people alive. This story broke six weeks ago in the New York Times. Nobody noticed. A leaked State Department memo confirmed the threat: sign over preferential access to Zambia’s copper, cobalt, and lithium or face massive cuts to PEPFAR funding.Zambia relies on American money for 80 percent of its HIV treatment. 1.3 million people are on daily medication that depends on it. In December Trump’s government suspended health funding talks entirely when Zambia wasn’t moving fast enough on minerals. The deadline is this week. Zambia said no. Zimbabwe walked away from a similar deal. Kenya’s compact is suspended by a court order. Trump’s leverage has already failed everywhere. Which means if he follows through, 1.3 million people lose their treatment not because negotiations collapsed but out of spite. Since Trump took office, aid trackers at Boston University estimate his cuts have contributed to over 518,000 child deaths and 263,000 adult deaths from manageable diseases. The testing money is gone too so we can’t even count them all. Two weeks ago I covered Gilead Sciences charging $28,000 for an AIDS drug that costs $25 to make. This week Trump’s government is threatening to let people die of AIDS unless a poor country hands over its minerals. The through line is the same: human lives are not the point. Resources are. The people dying are the leverage. Hat tip to Jonathan Larsen at The Fucking News for tracking this story. Get full access to The Rogue Voice aka Linsay Rousseau at linsayrousseau.substack.com/subscribe