In her first press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended President Donald Trump’s legally dubious spending freeze at various federal agencies. While doing so during the Tuesday briefing, she claimed that Trump stopped the federal government from spending $50 million on condoms in Gaza.
But one former Biden administration says the claim is a “feverish dream.”
Leavitt said the “Department of Government Efficiency” – an advisory commission headed by Elon Musk – and the Office of Management and Budget had allegedly discovered that tens of millions of dollars had been earmarked for condoms in Gaza – presumably under the Biden administration:
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 money. So, that’s what this pause is focused on – being good stewards of tax dollars.
Around the time of Leavitt’s remarks, Fox News Digital cited an unnamed White House official who told the outlet that as part of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s freeze on foreign aid, $50 million slated to purchase condoms for Gaza had also been held up.
Conservative media had a field day, as many right-wing outlets ran with the claim, including several Fox News shows. Hosts of Jesse Watters Primetime, The Ingraham Angle, and The Five cited Leavitt’s remarks. Over at NewsNation, the host of On Balance with Leland
But Andrew Miller, a deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, said this is all a “feverish dream.”
“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.
As of this writing, no one in the Trump administration has come forward as the source of the assertion that $50 million had been earmarked for condoms in Gaza. That is curious, considering that, if the claim is true, the administration would simply be able to cite a line item in an agency’s budget to prove the charge. No “source” would be needed beyond a mundane government document, which the Trump administration has yet to produce.