The head of the US Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, has denied the Trump administration's claim that the previous administration allocated $50 million for condoms for Gaza.
This comes two weeks after White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said so at a press briefing, and more than a week after US President Donald Trump doubled the figure to $100 million and said the condoms were going to Hamas.
“Some of my words may have been wrong and need to be corrected. No one can hit the target perfectly all the time. We will make mistakes, but we will act quickly to correct any mistakes”, – Musk said.
It all started on January 28, when Carolina Levitt, during her debut press briefing at the White House, said that Musk's team and the President's Budget Office “discovered that about 50 million taxpayer dollars went to fund condoms in Gaza”. Musk shared Levitt's words on the social network X.
However, global aid experts have said that this story is a fabrication, as according to official figures, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) did not provide any aid in the form of condoms to the entire Middle East between fiscal years 2021 and 2023.
Donald Trump later repeated the $50 million figure in his speech the day after Ms. Levitt's briefing. Trump's version was even more “provocative”: he said that the money was intended to purchase condoms “for Hamas”. The following week, Trump, without explanation, doubled the figure, saying that the condoms “for Hamas” it was planned to spend 100 million dollars.
Gaza, but not the same
Asking about the condom situation, the journalist told Elon Musk that the condoms were not intended for the Palestinian territory of Gaza, but for the African country of Mozambique, which has a province called Gaza.
Musk later admitted that he sometimes makes inaccurate comments, but said he was “not sure we should be sending $50 million worth of condoms anywhere, to be honest”.
However, the journalist confused Elon Musk, as spending $50 million on condoms for Mozambique was not in the plans either.
Federal data shows that in fiscal year 2023, USAID's assistance for condoms worldwide amounted to about $8 million, and that no condoms were sent to Mozambique at all.
Mozambique, which is one of the countries with the highest HIV prevalence rates, received about $100 million worth of non-condom contraceptives from USAID that year. $5.4 million.
“So why is anyone mentioning Mozambique in the context of this inaccurate claim about tens of millions of dollars in supposed aid in the form of condoms? Some social media users have suggested that the White House made the announcement about condoms for the Palestinian territory of Gaza because it was confused by federal records showing that a health project in Mozambique’s Gaza (and one other province) was supported by $84 million in US funding.
What actually went on behind the scenes at the White House remains unclear. Despite this, the US-funded initiative in Mozambique — “This is a large, multifaceted effort to combat HIV and tuberculosis, not a condom dump,” CNN emphasizes.