White House claim that $50 million was earmarked for Gaza condom shipments is ‘feverish dream’

Karoline Leavitt, the White House’s new – and youngest-ever – press secretary, made the unsubstantiated claim in her first briefing that $50 million had been earmarked for a condom distribution programme in Gaza.

Under the Trump administration, former communications director Leavitt, 27, replaces Karine Jean-Pierre as US press secretary and hosted her first press briefing of Trump’s second term on Tuesday (28 January).

During the press conference Leavitt took swipes at the legacy media, celebrated immigration crackdowns, defended Trump’s order to freeze federal funding and attacked funding for what she referred to “transgenderism and wokeness“.

She said that that the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire and “first buddy” Elon Musk had uncovered “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,” she said.

The claim has been criticised as lacking evidence.

Recent data shared in a report on condom shipments overseas by US Agency for International Development (USAID) states that in 2023 a delivery to the value of $45,680 was made to Jordan for government programmes, with no mention of Gaza specifically in the document.

The report also states that in fiscal year 2023 a total of value of contraceptives and condoms delivered was $60.8 million with Africa accounting for the largest amount of delivered value – $54.3 million or equal to 89 per cent of funds.

The Times of Israel quotes a former senior Biden official dismissing the claim that the previous administration earmarked $50 million for a condom distribution program in the Gaza Strip as a “feverish dream.”

Andrew Miller – who served as deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs under the Biden administration – also described the claim as “outlandish.”

“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.

In a post on X, sharing The Times of Israel story, he further stated: “White House either can’t read a simple spend table or it’s lying.”

Earlier this month, Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending all U.S. foreign assistance programs for 90 day, throwing US funded projects across the globe into chaos.

In the order, Trump said “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values” and “serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries”.

Issuing a statement on the freeze, secretary of state Marco Rubio said: “Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?”