Republicans cling to false 'condoms in Gaza' claim, despite reality [View all]

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Trump and some of his GOP allies have argued that the U.S. approved $50 million for condoms in Gaza. A fact-check report called the claim "preposterous."

There's nothing funny about the White House and congressional Republicans lying about the U.S. financing condoms in Gaza.

But Trump's claim that Hamas used the non-existent condoms for bomb delivery is just ... wow. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-01-29T21:19:58.586Z

There's nothing funny about the White House and congressional Republicans lying about the U.S. financing condoms in Gaza.

But Trump's claim that Hamas used the non-existent condoms for bomb delivery is just

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republicans-cling-false-condoms-gaza-claim-reality-rcna189882

Leavitt told reporters that Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and the White House budget office “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.” She added, in apparent reference to the freeze, “That’s what this pause is focused on.”...

A day later, the president himself, reading carefully from a teleprompter, declared that there’s been “tremendous waste and fraud” in federal spending. He went on to claim that there was some kind of internal review process which led his team to “identify and stop $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.”

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lgvoyiy26v2e?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fiframe.nbcnews.com%252FApjJULw

Link to tweet

....A fact-check report in The Washington Post explained, “On the face of it, Leavitt’s statement that $50 million was going to be spent on condoms is preposterous. That figure is three times the yearly average spent by the U.S. government for the entire world.

“Moreover, neither [Leavitt] nor the State Department could provide documentation supporting this claim. The department identified a contractor that it claimed was distributing condoms in Gaza, but the organization says no U.S. money is involved.”

A related fact-check report from CNN went into more detail about the funding in question: “The [contractor that received the resources] said the U.S. funding has paid for the two hospitals’ 'lifesaving medical care' for roughly 33,000 civilians per month. Trump’s freeze, the organization said, halts U.S. funding for hospital services like performing about 30 lifesaving surgeries per day, delivering about 20 babies per day, running an emergency room receiving up to 200 patients per day, and operating one of Gaza’s only neonatal intensive care units and only stabilization centers for severely malnourished children.”

I don’t doubt that Republicans in the White House and on Capitol Hill will continue to repeat the false claim about condoms anyway, and it will soon become one of those lies that the party just pretends is true. But the repetition won’t turn fiction into fact.