Don't Believe the Libs' Fact Checks on the $50 Million in Condoms to Gaza at This Point
It’s been touted as the smoking gun that the Department of Government Efficiency is a farce: a claim that $50 million was spent on condoms for Gaza, which the media denies was ever spent.
And, to be fair, it’s worth examining. However, the evidence that these “fact checks” are dispositive of the falsehood of the claim don’t hold as much water as the left would like to believe.
The expenditure, reportedly discovered by DOGE and Office of Management and Budget, was touted by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt as part of a defense for the president’s freeze on certain federal expenditures.
“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,” Leavitt said Tuesday. “That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money. So that’s what this pause is focused on: being good stewards of tax dollars.”
The allegation was echoed by others, like David Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel.
It was announced today that the Trump Administration stopped the shipment of $50M in condoms to Gaza.
The retail online cost of a single condom is $2. A $50M shipment means the Biden Administration had approved delivery of at least 25 million condoms (assuming that the Biden…
— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) January 29, 2025
However, according to the U.K. Guardian, “[a] review of the available evidence, however, suggests that the claim is almost certainly not true.
“According to a comprehensive report issued in September by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the U.S. in the past year went to Gaza,” the outlet reported.
“In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan.”
Furthermore, as the International Planned Parenthood Federation pointed out just two days after the Israeli-Hamas war began on Oct. 9, 2023, it’s not as if these items are legally available in Gaza anyway.
“Basic sexual and reproductive health care commodities, like condoms, are banned in Gaza. The total blockade of Gaza will only worsen the situation for millions of desperate people who are denied their most basic of human rights,” the statement said.
However, there are several problems with taking this fact check as dispositive that such an expenditure didn’t exist — or that there aren’t condoms in Gaza, albeit not used for their intended purpose.
First, about that “comprehensive report issued in September” that the Guardian touted: That report dealt with expenditures for fiscal year 2023, which ended on Sept. 30, 2023 — before the Hamas attacks and the war in Israel.
Could Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, or any related groups have requested shipments of condoms, despite the fact that family planning isn’t exactly a major priority there? Well, yes, actually — and, as former Ambassador Friedman pointed out, “[a]ny idiot would know these condoms were not earmarked for their intended use.”
As The Jerusalem Post reported in 2020, during border skirmishes in the region, which saw flaming kites and other incendiaries launched over the fence separating Israel from Gaza, “booby-trapped balloons and condoms began to be carried east toward the South, carried by winds coming off the Mediterranean Sea.”
“Condoms in Gaza are generally supplied by either local Palestinian organizations or through international programs. The helium used to fill them up, which is intended for medical purposes, including operating MRI machines, is imported into the Gaza Strip with Israel’s approval,” the report read.
“When first faced with the explosive condom threat, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories limited the import of condoms, balloons and helium into the Hamas-run coastal enclave. The ban remains in place.”
Did President Joe Biden’s administration act foolishly enough to earmark $50 million for contraceptives that weren’t going to be used for contraceptive purposes?
It’d be nice to see the receipts — but given the leftward bent of an administration where the man who’s supposed to be in charge clearly can’t think for himself and we don’t know who’s doing his thinking for him, this isn’t out of the realm of possibility, sadly — which is why we ought to wait on this one before we call it fake news, particularly given the fact checkers’ biases and the lack of timely information.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
