Elon Musk retracts claim of $50 million condom shipment to Gaza
Elon Musk speaks as US President Donald Trump looks on in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2025. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tapped by President Donald Trump to lead federal cost-cutting efforts, said the United States would go "bankrupt" without budget cuts. Musk leads the efforts under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and was speaking at the White House with Trump, who has in recent weeks unleashed a flurry of orders aimed at slashing federal spending. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Billionaire Elon Musk has retracted his previous claim that the US was planning to send $50 million worth of condoms to Gaza, acknowledging that his statement was incorrect.
“First of all, some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected,” Musk admitted to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, after being confronted with fact-checking reports.
He clarified that the millions of dollars in question were allocated for sexually transmitted disease prevention in Gaza province, Mozambique—not the Gaza Strip.
“We will make mistakes, but we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes,” Musk stated, adding, “I’m not sure we should be sending $50 million worth of condoms anywhere. Frankly, I’m not sure that’s something Americans would be really excited about. And that is really an enormous number of condoms.”
His original claim had been amplified by US President Donald Trump, who earlier this month alleged that his administration had “identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas”.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, first introduced the claim in her inaugural briefing, crediting Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) with uncovering the alleged funding. However, no evidence was ever provided to support the assertion.
Publicly available USAID data from 2007 to 2023 contradicts the claim entirely, showing no record of condom shipments to Gaza.
The only documented shipment to the Middle East in that period was a $45,680 supply sent to Jordan in 2023, which marked the first such delivery to the region since 2019.
