The “we’re gonna go back” platform is doing exactly what could be expected and will kill millions. One estimate in South Africa alone is 500K dead from a disease that was trending towards being eradicated.

Projects funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), founded by George W Bush in 2003, appear to be particularly affected. In South Africa it funds 17% of the HIV response; in other countries the figure is much higher.

Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town, said: “It is not hyperbole to say that I predict a huge disaster.”

Bekker has worked on modelling suggesting a complete loss of Pepfar funding in South Africa would lead to more than 500,000 extra HIV deaths over a decade.

It comes at a time when scientific breakthroughs, such as the introduction of long-acting injectable prevention drugs, meant many working in the HIV field had hoped an end to the disease might be in sight.

Now, said Bekker, it was likely things would go backwards.

Going backwards, full retreat, with people dying unnecessarily from preventable causes is the definition of MAGA.