Condoms Trump claimed went to Gaza could have gone to Mozambique

US President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington spent $50 million on condoms for the devastated Gaza Strip in Palestine has been debunked, with information that the funds could have been allocated to Gaza province in Mozambique instead, around 7,200 km away. 

On his second day in office, Trump signed an executive order suspending all foreign aid programmes, slamming the previous Biden administration for funding what he claimed was unnecessary assistance. 

He told reporters: “We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. And do you know what they’ve done with them? They’ve used them to make bombs.”

The claims were met with questions about how Trump could have reached this bizarre conclusion.

Was the funding misinterpreted? 

Gaza Province is a rural region in Mozambique with a population of just over one million, which has received contraceptive funding through the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.  

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) records show the organisation has received over $83 million in funding since 2021 for reproductive health projects in Mozambique’s Inhambane and Gaza provinces. 

It remains unclear whether the Trump administration mistakenly referenced this grant or deliberately misrepresented it.  

Given that multiple locations worldwide share the name Gaza, the confusion may have been intentional or a simple oversight. 

No US condoms sent to Gaza since 2019 

Relief agencies, health experts, and US government reports contradict Trump’s claim. 

According to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), no condoms have been sent to any part of the Middle East since 2019. 

The agency’s most recent shipment to the region consisted of $45,680 worth of injectable and oral contraceptives sent to Jordan in 2023. 

The International Medical Corps (IMC), a humanitarian group that has received $68 million from USAID for Gaza since 7 October 2023, confirmed: “No US government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms.”

The funds have been used exclusively for two field hospitals providing surgical care, malnutrition treatment, and maternal health services. 

Experts have criticised Trump’s claim.  

Matthew Kavanagh, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, told AFP: “The White House claim that DOGE uncovered $50 million in funding for condoms in Gaza is quite obviously untrue.” 

DOGE is the new US Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump created in order to cut waste in government spending. It is headed by his billionaire ally Elon Musk.

Kavanagh argued that the administration was mischaracterising health grants to justify halting foreign aid. 

Similarly, Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, mocked the confusion, stating on X: “What’s going on is that the bros at DOGE apparently can’t read (government) spreadsheets.”

Trump’s foreign aid freeze 

Since returning to office on 20 January, Trump has ordered a 90-day freeze on foreign assistance, aiming to ensure aid aligns with his administration’s policies, which generally oppose abortion, transgender rights, and diversity initiatives. 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed in a memo that nearly all aid disbursements have been frozen, except for emergency food assistance and military aid to Egypt and Israel. 

One of the most controversial claims about US taxpayers’ money being wasted was the Gaza condom story.

no evidence has been presented in support of the claim and a verified X account (@DataRepublic), which tracks government grants, revealed that a US grant worth $83 million was allocated for sexually transmitted disease prevention—not in Palestine’s Gaza Strip, but in Mozambique’s Gaza Province. 

The New Arab approached the Mozambique embassy in London and Office of Management for Budget for clarification about the claims but received no response by the time of publication.