Community Note Debunking Trump White House Claim on Condoms for Gaza ‘Disappeared’ From X

Veteran investigative journalist Robert Mackey hammered Elon Musk’s X on Wednesday after the platform “disappeared” a community note debunking a wild claim from the White House that was originally sourced from Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The controversy kicked off on Tuesday when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “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.”

The stunning claim raised eyebrows across the media and made headlines around the globe. The Guardian was quick to cast doubt on it and wrote that “A review of the available evidence, however, suggests that the claim is almost certainly not true.”

Mackey shared the clip and offered his take on it, writing, “I looked into it, and despite what @PressSec says @elonmusk told her, the US has spent exactly $0 on condoms for Gaza, not $50 million.” His post was then affixed with a Community Note that cited the Guardian’s reporting and read, “A USAID report confirms that none of the $60.8M in US-funded contraceptives last year went to Gaza. In fact, no condoms were sent anywhere in the Middle East. Just one shipment – $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives – went to the region, all of it distributed to Jordan.”

Soon after Mackey noted the Community Note was gone, he again posted, “Strange, there was a community note on this tweet a while ago, citing my reporting that what @PressSec said @elonmusk told her is not true, but now that note has been removed. I wonder why? Here are the facts again, for those who prefer not to be lied to.” He then shared an image of the “disappeared” Community Note.

He also later hit Fox News’s Jesse Watters for promoting the claim, writing, “This is how propaganda works: the government makes a wildly false claim; the regime loyal media repeats it without bothering to find out it is untrue. But it is untrue.”

Former USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk also offered a quick debunk of the claim, which President Donald Trump repeated on Wednesday. “So look – on the “Gaza condoms” thing. USAID procures condoms for around $0.05 apiece. $50m would be ONE BILLION condoms. What’s going is here is NOT a billion condoms for Gaza. What’s going on is that the bros at DOGE apparently can’t read govt spreadsheets.”