Aid experts dismiss Trump's 'Gaza condoms' spending claim

by Anuj CHOPRA

US aid experts on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's claim that the United States had spent $50 million to fund condoms for the war-battered Gaza Strip, which the president has sought to make a poster child for wasteful spending.

"We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas," Trump told reporters, referring to the militant group that has ruled the Palestinian territory for nearly two decades.

"And do you know what's happened to them? They've used them as a method of making bombs."

Trump offered no evidence to back his claim, which prompted both vehement rejections and ridicule from relief agencies and experts.

The United States sent no condoms to any part of the Middle East since 2019, according to a detailed report last year from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

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Its only family planning contribution to the region was a small shipment of injectable and oral contraceptives worth $45,680 that was sent to Jordan in 2023, the report said.

International Medical Corps, a humanitarian aid organization, said it received about $68 million from USAID for its Gaza operations since October 7, 2023 -- the day Hamas launched a major attack on Israel –- which paid for two field hospitals providing lifesaving care.

"No US government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms," the organization said in a statement.

- 'Dangerous' -

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the $50 million expenditure was discovered in Trump's first week by the budget office and the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

She called it a "preposterous waste of taxpayer money."

"The White House claim that DOGE uncovered $50 million in funding for condoms in Gaza is quite obviously untrue," Matthew Kavanagh, director of Georgetown University's Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, told AFP.

"It does not even make sense."

A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests $50 million would buy over a billion condoms for Gaza's adult population.

"What's going is here is NOT a billion condoms for Gaza," Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, wrote on X, the Musk-owned site formerly called Twitter.

"What's going on is that the bros at DOGE apparently can't read (government) spreadsheets."

Jesse Watters, host of a conservative-leaning talk show on Fox News, said that Hamas were using the non-existent US shipments to make "condom bombs," floating explosives-laden balloons into Israel -- a claim echoed by Trump.

Soon after returning to office for a second term on January 20, Trump ordered a 90-day freeze in foreign assistance.

He has vowed a review to ensure that aid conforms with policies of his administration, which opposes abortion, transgender rights and diversity programs.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a memo that the United States was freezing nearly all aid disbursement except for emergency food and military aid to Egypt and Israel.

"What seems clear is the administration is taking a large grant to support healthcare infrastructure in Gaza and mischaracterizing it in order to justify the dangerous halt to lifesaving aid programs around the world," Kavanagh said.