'Diplomat' Elton John Will 'Fight' and 'Go Face to Face' for AIDS Funding

Global out superstar Elton John says he has to be "a diplomat" when it comes to ensuring that money to combat AIDS keeps flowing – but if it comes down to it, he's willing to "go there and fight for it, even if I have to go face to face" with heads of state like Donald Trump, whose slash-and-burn policies have endangered PEPFAR, a critical program first launched by another GOP president, George W. Bush.

"I cannot speak out about governments. I'm a diplomat," John, 78, said during a March 26 appearance at the Palladium in London, according to UK newspaper the Daily Mail.

"If I speak out about governments, then what's going to happen to the AIDS money?" John asked. "What's going to happen to PEPFAR?"

A number of U.S. departments and programs have been severely defunded since the current president took office, with Elon Musk, a South Africa-born civilian and tech billionaire, gutting the government in the name of "efficiency" – but doing so in a manner that has been criticized as anything but.

Among the governmental entities that have been downsized or shuttered are USAID, "which dispensed around 60% of PEPFAR grants," Health Policy Watch noted.

"The only inkling of what a reformed and slashed PEPFAR might look like is contained in a throwaway reference to PEPFAR in a leaked plan on US foreign aid reform that is being circulated by Trump aides, as reported by Politico," the site went on to say, explaining that PEPFAR is evidently slated to fall under control of a new entity, the Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance (IHA).

"IHA's mandate would be limited to the strategic delivery of humanitarian assistance, responding to disasters, enhancing global health security (including a modified PEPFAR) and promoting international food security," Health Policy Watch quoted from the leaked document.

The 78-year-old "I'm Still Standing" singer, who has campaigned for decades for programs to fight AIDS, "was instrumental in lobbying to set up the two-decade-old President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief," the Mail recalled, noting that PEPFAR "is estimated to have saved over 25 million lives globally."

"I've got people's lives at stake," John said during a March 26 appearance at the Palladium in London. "I have an AIDS foundation that depends on money, and I will go there and fight for it as much as I can."

"But I cannot go out and say, ''You're an asshole,'" John added. "That's not what it's about. You have to negotiate. You have to play the game."

John noted that PEPFAR survived Trump's first term in office. Admitting that the current situation "looks a little shaky," and despite his cautions about the need for diplomacy, the "Rocketman" singer vowed, "I'm going to go there and fight for it, even if I have to go face to face I will," the Mail relayed.

The newspaper noted that PEPFAR "is still heavily reliant on logistical support from" the gutted USAID, and added that, according to an American Evangelical Christian and doctor working to stop AIDS in Africa, significant harm has already been done.

Dr. Matthew Loftus told the British press, "In some places they're not getting the drugs or they're being asked to pay cash for the drugs. Other places are completely closed and so patients are scrambling to find medications or they're going without."

The consequences to depriving AIDS patients of life-saving medications will be disastrous, Loftus intimated, noting that when drug regimens effective at suppressing HIV are no longer followed, HIV rapidly reasserts itself – and new, more drug-resistant strains of the virus emerge.

That's only one aspect of the damage. Trust is another – and much trust has been lost.

"They could turn everything back on tomorrow and I think there would be permanent damage," Loftus said. "Once you fire people and close clinics, rebuilding trust is difficult, getting people to come back is difficult."