The Trump administration has put a freeze on federal funding, including $50 million originally earmarked for condom distribution in Gaza.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the expenditure was discovered in Trump’s first week including by the new Department of Government Efficiency led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Musk’s initiative and the budget office “found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza,” Leavitt told her debut press conference.
That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money,” she said.
She did not provide more details and it was not immediately possible to verify the account independently.
Condoms generally cost less than one dollar each in the United States and much less in bulk. Just over two million people live in Gaza, nearly all of which has been heavily damaged in the 15-month war with Israel.
Leavitt also said that the United States was about to dispense $37 million to the World Health Organization before Trump announced a pullout from the UN body.
Quickly after taking office, Trump ordered a 90-day freeze in foreign assistance.
He has vowed a review to ensure that aid conforms with policies of his administration, which opposes abortion, transgender rights and diversity programs.
Unfortunately, what Leavitt said about the alleged condom shipment doesn’t match what the government has said about its aid efforts in Gaza.
A September 2024 U.S. Agency for International Development report says not one dollar of the $60.8 million used to fund condoms and contraceptives distributed by the agency worldwide was allocated to the Palestinian territory.
The same report shows that the only contraceptives sent to the Middle East were distributed to the Jordanian government in the form of $45,680 worth of oral and injectable medications — not condoms.
Andrew Miller, the ex-Biden administration State Department official who served as deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, told The Times of Israel on Wednesday that Leavitt’s claim was “outlandish” and “a feverish dream” on the part of the new administration.
“It’s possible that $50 million is put aside for sexual health or something of that nature, which would include gynecology and many other services, but definitely not condoms alone,” he said.
Musk, who is also the owner of X, posted that the false condom expenditure was the “tip of the iceberg” for waste and claimed that “a lot of that money ended up in the pockets of Hamas.” There is no evidence to support either of those assertions.
