Condoms: Musk admits Trump's confusion between Gaza and Mozambique

Preservativos: Musk admite confusão de Trump entre Gaza, em Moçambique, e Faixa de Gaza

The head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) acknowledged on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump had confused the province of Gaza, in Mozambique, with the Gaza Strip, an Israeli territory, in his statements about a discovery of million-dollar expenditures for the shipment of contraceptive "condoms".

"First of all, some of the things I say will be incorrect and should be corrected," Musk told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about fact-checking that millions of dollars were earmarked for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases in Mozambique's Gaza province.

Earlier this month, Trump claimed that his government - the DOGE and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) - had "identified and prevented 50 million dollars from being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas."

In fact, the claim was first announced by White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, saying that the money would come out of UAID's coffers to fund condoms in Gaza.

Due to the current tensions between Israel and the armed group Hamas, information spread that 50 million dollars worth of condoms would be sent to Hamas.

However, at a press conference, After being confronted by a journalist, Musk admitted that he had made a mistake..

"We will make mistakes, but we will act quickly to correct any errors," he said.

"I'm not sure we should be sending 50 million dollars worth of condoms anywhere. Frankly, I'm not sure that's something that would make the Americans happy. And that's a really high number of condoms... If it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza... okay, it wouldn't be too bad. But why do we have to do that?" he asked.

A review of publicly available USAID data from 2007 to 2023 contradicts the US government's claim, showing no record of condom shipments to the Gaza Strip. The only shipment to the Middle East during that period was a $45,680 supply sent to Jordan in 2023, marking the first recorded delivery to the region since 2019.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grants database, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Mozambique has received more than 83 million dollars in funding since 2021 for reproductive health projects in two provinces: Inhambane and Gaza.

Share this article

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.