United States President Donald Trump has boasted that his administration had stopped $50m in bomb-making condoms from being despatched to Gaza.
Trump offered no proof for his claims – that condoms have been being despatched to Gaza or that Hamas is utilizing contraceptives to make bombs – and left many individuals questioning what the US president was speaking about.
However maybe there’s a proof. A weird one.
Right here’s what you could find out about Trump’s declare that the US was sending condoms to Hamas till he stopped the move:
What precisely does Trump assume occurred?
Trump made the contraceptive declare whereas itemizing his administration’s accomplishments since coming into workplace.
“We recognized and stopped $50m being despatched to Gaza to purchase condoms for Hamas,” Trump stated on Wednesday. “They used them as a technique of creating bombs. How about that?”
Karoline Leavitt, the White Home press secretary, made an analogous declare on Tuesday throughout her debut information briefing. She acknowledged that the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) and the Workplace of Administration and Funds (OMB) “discovered that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer {dollars} that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza.”
She known as the alleged help “a preposterous waste of taxpayer cash”.
Jesse Watters, host of a conservative-leaning discuss present on Fox Information, stated Hamas was utilizing the nonexistent US shipments to make “condom bombs”, floating explosives-laden balloons into Israel. Did he share any proof to again up that bomb-astic declare? No.
Why did the White Home make the condoms declare?
Trump seems to have made the accusation to border Gaza for example of wasteful US overseas help spending. His administration has justified its suspension of practically all overseas help by highlighting examples of “egregious funding”, resembling contraception and reproductive healthcare programmes.
The administration says it’s conducting a assessment to make sure that the tens of billions of {dollars} of US overseas help is aligned with Trump’s “America first” overseas coverage and never a waste of taxpayer cash.
The US is by far the biggest help donor globally. In fiscal 12 months 2023, it disbursed $72bn of help worldwide on the whole lot from girls’s well being in battle zones to entry to scrub water, HIV/AIDS remedies, vitality safety and anticorruption work.
Quickly after returning to workplace for a second time period on January 20, Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on overseas help to make it possible for the help conforms with the insurance policies of his administration, which opposes abortion, transgender rights and variety programmes.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in a memo that the US was freezing practically all help disbursement apart from emergency meals help and navy help to Egypt and Israel.
What number of condoms can you purchase with $50m?
Refugees Worldwide President Jeremy Konyndyk, who oversaw the US Company for Worldwide Improvement’s (USAID’s) COVID-19 help portfolio for President Joe Biden’s administration, refuted Trump’s and Leavitt’s claims as unrealistic.
“USAID procures condoms for round $0.05 apiece,” he wrote on Wednesday on X. “$50m could be ONE BILLION condoms. What’s happening right here is NOT a billion condoms for Gaza. What’s happening is that the bros at DOGE apparently can’t learn govt spreadsheets.”
So look – on the “Gaza condoms” factor.
USAID procures condoms for round $0.05 apiece.
$50m could be ONE BILLION condoms.
What is going on is right here is NOT a billion condoms for Gaza.
What is going on on is that the bros at DOGE apparently cannot learn govt spreadsheets.
— Jeremy Konyndyk is at jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social (@JeremyKonyndyk) January 29, 2025
Was the US actually going to ship $50m in condoms to Gaza?
There is no such thing as a publicly accessible proof of plans for thousands and thousands of taxpayer {dollars} to be spent on funding condoms in Gaza, and a Division of State official didn’t reply to an proof request from the Reuters information company.
Nevertheless, there’s a whole lot of proof that seems to refute Trump’s declare.
In an announcement on Wednesday, the Worldwide Medical Corps (IMC), an organisation that obtained US cash to offer medical care in Gaza, detailed its work within the enclave. It stated: “No US authorities funding was used to obtain or distribute condoms, nor present family-planning providers.”
Its assertion added that IMC has obtained greater than $68m from USAID since October 7, 2023, which has been used to function two giant area hospitals in Gaza, together with for surgical care, malnutrition therapy, and emergency maternal and new child care.
No publicly accessible studies by DOGE or OMB replicate a plan to spend $100m on the IMC’s operations in Gaza.
Experiences for fiscal years 2007 by way of 2023 on contraceptives and condoms shipped by USAID to the remainder of the world additionally don’t present any file of condoms shipped to Gaza.
A former deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Center East, Dana Stroul, stated in an X put up on Wednesday that USAID didn’t spend cash on Gaza in fiscal 12 months 2023.
An April USAID report reveals that the US delivered $60.8m in contraceptives and condoms to 4 areas – the Center East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean – within the earlier fiscal 12 months.
The Center East obtained simply $45,681 whereas Africa obtained greater than $54m, or 89 p.c, of the contraceptives in fiscal 12 months 2023.
The report added that the $45,681 was made totally to Jordan and included oral contraceptives and injectable contraceptives however didn’t embody condoms.
USAID studies additionally present deliveries to the Center East in fiscal years 2019, 2013, 2012, 2009, 2008 and 2007, none of which point out any deliveries to Gaza.
Underneath the Trump administration, USAID delivered $1.1m to the Center East in fiscal 12 months 2019. All commodities went to Yemen, together with female and male condoms and a number of varieties of contraceptives.
Was Trump considering of a distinct Gaza?
The US Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) funds organisations worldwide that perform health-related initiatives, together with reproductive well being.
Might it’s that Trump and his administration have been referring to a distinct Gaza? In spite of everything, there are greater than a dozen locations on the planet named Gaza, together with two communities in the USA.
For the second, why Trump made the declare and what proof he has is unknown.
However it’s fascinating to notice that in accordance with the HHS grants database, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Basis in Mozambique has obtained greater than $83m in funding since 2021.
The cash was assigned to reproductive well being initiatives in two of the nation’s provinces: Inhambane and Gaza.
This funding is anticipated to proceed till September 2026, in accordance with the grant particulars.
It’s unclear whether or not Mozambique has misplaced funding due to any confusion over its Gaza province.
