Can the U.S. end the HIV epidemic in a decade, as Trump pledged?

President Trump confirmed Tuesday that his administration will attempt to end the HIV epidemic in the United States within the next decade — but experts have warned that’s a harder task than his simple pledge suggests.

Trump’s decision to emphasize the pledge in his State of the Union address, as Politico first reported this weekend, triggered excitement among public health experts who know that with adequate funding for medications and other scientific tools that great inroads could be made in at least reducing the number of infections that occur in the country each year. In 2017, nearly 39,000 Americans contracted HIV.

“Together, we will defeat AIDS in America — and beyond,” Trump told the dignitaries assembled in the House for the State of the Union.

But he offered no details of how his administration hoped to achieve