US Senator: Biden administration embarked $50 million for a condom distribution program in the Gaza Strip

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White House: Biden earmarked $50M for Gaza condoms; Biden official calls claim a ‘feverish dream’​

The White House claims the previous administration had earmarked $50 million for a condom distribution program in the Gaza Strip, but does not offer evidence to back up the claim, which a former senior Biden official dismisses as a “feverish dream.”


White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the expenditure was discovered in Trump’s first week including by the new Department of Government Efficiency led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.


Musk’s initiative and the budget office “found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza,” Leavitt tells her debut press conference.


“That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money,” she says.


Andrew Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs under former US president Joe Biden, calls the claim “outlandish.”


“It’s possible that $50 million is put aside for sexual health or something of that nature, which would include gynecology and many other services, but definitely not condoms alone,” he tells The Times of Israel.


The US Agency for International Development’s spending on injectable contraceptives, contraceptive implants, IUDs, male condoms, oral contraceptives, Standard Days Method and female condoms amounted to $60 million in the fiscal year of 2023, and that was across the entire globe.


Moreover, no condoms went to the Middle East and the only country to receive a small amount — $45,000 — in other contraceptives was Jordan. Seven million dollars in condoms were distributed globally in the 2023 fiscal year, figures from the most recently produced USAID report show, with the vast majority of the those funds earmarked for Africa.


Condoms generally cost less than one dollar each in the United States and much less in bulk. Just over two million people live in Gaza, nearly all of which has been heavily damaged in the 15-month war with Israel.