President Trump says He has stopped $50 million worth of funding to Gaza

In a move that left many scratching their heads, United States President Donald Trump boasted that his administration had halted the shipment of $50m worth of bomb-making condoms to Gaza.

Trump provided no evidence for his claims that condoms were being sent to Gaza or that Hamas was using contraceptives to make bombs, leaving many people wondering what the US president was talking about... Continue reading here ▶

Trump’s contraceptive claim

Trump made the contraceptive claim while listing his administration’s accomplishments since coming into office.

“We identified and stopped $50m being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas,” Trump said on December 29. “They used them as a method of making bombs. How about that?”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made a similar claim, stating that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) found that $50m was about to be spent on condoms in Gaza, calling it a “preposterous waste of taxpayer money.”

Refutation and evidence

Refugees International President Jeremy Konyndyk refuted Trump’s and Leavitt’s claims as unrealistic, stating that $50m would equate to one billion condoms.

There is no publicly available evidence of plans for millions of taxpayer dollars to be spent on funding condoms in Gaza. The International Medical Corps (IMC), which received US money to provide medical care in Gaza, stated that no US government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms. Reports from USAID also do not show any record of condoms shipped to Gaza.

Possible confusion

It is possible that Trump and his administration were referring to a different Gaza, as there are more than a dozen places in the world named Gaza, including two communities in the United States.

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Mozambique received more than $83m in funding for reproductive health projects in two of the country’s provinces, including Gaza.