Trump Defends Elon Musk by Taking Debunked $50 Million ‘Condoms for Hamas’ Claim and DOUBLING It
President Donald Trump repeated a baseless accusation to justify the Elon Musk-led DOGE takeover of the federal government and freezing of programs like USAID, claiming that the U.S. government was sending $50 million to Gaza for condoms on Monday — except this time, he doubled the price tag.
Last week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that “there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza,” which she called “a preposterous waste of taxpayer money.” The actual financial records fail to show evidence for anything remotely in the ballpark of Leavitt’s claim; there was a similar amount spent for contraceptive health worldwide but nothing to Gaza and no condoms sent anywhere in the Middle East.
That didn’t stop Trump supporters like Fox News host Jesse Watters from repeating the claim. Trump himself cited the unfounded number last week, and added a new element — claiming the condoms were being used by Hamas to make bombs.
We are merely looking at parts of the big bureaucracy where there has been tremendous waste and fraud and abuse. And that process we identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas — 50 million. And you know what’s happened to them? They’ve used them as a method of making bombs. How about that?
On Monday, the president once again claimed taxpayer money was going to buy condoms for Hamas during a gaggle with reporters in the Oval Office, but this time he doubled the number.
Trump made the comments in response to a reporter’s question about why it was “important” for Musk “to have access to the payment systems at Treasury?”
“Well, he’s got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good — if we agree with him, and it’s only if we agree with him,” said Trump. “He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs, and we put him in charge of seeing what he can do with certain groups and certain numbers.”
“The numbers, some of the numbers are horrible, what he’s found,” he continued. “A hundred — think of it — $100 million on condoms to Hamas, condoms to Hamas, and many other things that are, frankly, even more ridiculous. And they’re finding tremendous, uh, waste, really waste more than anything else, I think you could say, probably fraud and abuse can be added to it. The more standard waste, fraud, and abuse. But they’re finding tremendous amounts of really bad things, bad spending.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
