A government report doesn’t back up Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s claim that $50 million worth of condoms were being shipped to Gaza — but it does show that even the first Trump administration shipped $40 million worth of condoms in just one year.
During Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Leavitt’s first, President Donald Trump’s spending freeze was a dominant topic. In one exchange, Leavitt cited a wild statistic to justify the move:
QUESTION: Why impose this pause with so little notice? Why not give organizations more time to plan for the fact that they are about to lose in some cases really crucial federal funding, at least for a period of time?
LEAVITT: There was notice. It was the executive order that the president signed. There’s also a freeze on hiring, as you know, a regulatory freeze, and there’s also a freeze on foreign aid.
And this is, again, incredibly important to ensure that this administration is taking into consideration how hard the American people are working, and their tax dollars actually matter to this administration. Just during this pause, DOGE and OMB have actually found that there was $37 million that was about to go out the door to the World Health Organization, which is an organization, as you all know, that President Trump with the swipe of his pen in that executive order is — no longer wants the United States to be a part of.
So that wouldn’t be in line with the president’s agenda. DOGE and OMB also found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza. That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money.
So that’s what this pause is focused on, being good stewards of tax dollars.
But despite fierce amplification of this facially preposterous claim by some of Trump’s allies, data from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tells a different story — one in which Leavitt’s claim can’t possibly be true.
The Guardian flagged the report, which shows “not a penny” of such aid going to Gaza — and shows Leavitt’s figure nearly equaling the total amount of contraceptive shipments worldwide:
According to a comprehensive report issued in September by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the US in the past year went to Gaza. In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan.
The paper also notes that Trump’s first administration spent over $40 million shipping condoms worldwide in 2019 alone.
Former Biden deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs Andrew Miller pushed back on the claim as well, telling The Times of Israel “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.”
The Trump administration has pointed to a claim by State Dept. spokesperson and former Fox News personality Tammy Bruce that Trump “Prevented $102 million in unjustified funding to a contractor in Gaza, including money for contraception.”
Bruce did not provide documentation of the claim, which does not substantiate Leavitt’s claim of “$50 million for condoms” in any case.
Watch above via The White House.
