The White House claimed Tuesday the Biden administration earmarked $50 million for a condom distribution program in the Gaza Strip, but does not offer evidence to back up the claim, which a former senior official dismisses as a “feverish dream.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt highlighted the figure to justify a sweeping freeze that the Trump administration instituted last week on almost all US foreign aid.
She said the expenditure was discovered in US President Donald Trump’s first week including by the new Department of Government Efficiency led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who on X called it “the tip of the iceberg.”
Musk’s DOGE 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 tells her debut press conference.
“That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money,” she said.
Andrew Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs under former US president Joe Biden, called the claim “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 told The Times of Israel.
Karoline Leavitt: “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 dollars.” pic.twitter.com/mbdAOg12b3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 28, 2025
The US Agency for International Development’s spending on injectable contraceptives, contraceptive implants, IUDs, male condoms, oral contraceptives, Standard Days Method and female condoms amounted to $60 million in the fiscal year of 2023, and that was across the globe — not just Gaza.
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 that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Quickly after taking office, Trump ordered a 90-day freeze in foreign assistance.
He has vowed a review to ensure that aid conforms with the policies of his administration, which opposes abortion, transgender rights and diversity programs.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo Friday said that the United States was freezing nearly all aid disbursement except for emergency food and military aid to Egypt and 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.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 28, 2025. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced concern about the aid freeze by the United States, long the world’s largest provider of development assistance in absolute dollar terms.
Shortly after Leavitt’s press conference, a federal judge on Tuesday afternoon temporarily blocked part of the Trump administration’s foreign aide freeze.
The short-term pause issued by US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan prevents the Trump administration from advancing its directive to freeze grants that were already approved by the federal government through at least 5 p.m. on Monday.
On Friday, the State Department issued a directive freezing almost all US foreign assistance, making exceptions for emergency humanitarian food programs along with military aid to Israel and Egypt.
The freeze is slated to last 90 days, during which the State Department will review all existing aid programs and determine whether they are in line with the Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda.
Leading aid organizations have been interpreting the State Department directive as an immediate stop-work order for US-funded humanitarian work globally, leading them to cease operations immediately so as not to incur more costs.
The decision by the State Department followed an executive order signed by Trump on his first day in office asserting that the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.”
The move has left many governments alarmed and rushing to determine whether their US assistance will resume as it was before the pause, be reduced or be cut completely.
Two US officials told The Times of Israel on Monday that the Trump administration has provided assurances to multiple countries in the Middle East that the freeze placed on aid assistance from the United States will be lifted in the coming months.
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