News/Commentary

Musk admits he was wrong about where $50M in condoms went, vows to always admit, correct errors quickly

February 12, 2025 | | Print Article

A petty prophylactic “fact check” had Elon Musk setting the record straight and flipping the script: “I’m not sure that’s something Americans would be really excited about.”

As terms like “dizzying” and “exhausting” were used to describe the pace at which President Donald Trump had started his second term, the opposition was stymied in varied attempts to maintain a narrative beyond the inane “orange man bad.”

Tuesday, the head of the advisory Department of Government Efficiency expertly demonstrated both transparency and how out of touch corporate media remained as he was confronted over which Gaza had received taxpayer-funded condoms.

“Well, first of all, some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. So, nobody’s gonna bat a thousand. I mean, any, you know we will make mistakes, but we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes,” began Musk when asked about reports that $50 million worth of condoms had been sent to the Hamas-run territory. “So, you know, if the — I’m not sure we should be sending $50 million worth of condoms to anywhere, frankly. I’m not sure that’s something Americans would be really excited about.”

The question posed to the head of DOGE started, “Mr. Musk, you said on X that an example of the fraud that you have cited was $50 million [of] condoms were sent to Gaza. But after fact check [on] this, apparently Gaza in Mozambique and the program was to protect them against HIV. So can you correct that statement?”

Reiterating that the shipment had gone to the province in the African country and not the Middle Eastern territory, the reporter added, “It wasn’t sent to Hamas, actually, it was sent to Mozambique, which makes sense why condoms were sent there. And how can we make sure that all the statements that you said were correct so we can trust what you say?”

Furthering his response, Musk asserted, “That is really an enormous number of condoms, if you think about it. But, you know, if it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza, I’m like, okay, that’s not as bad. But still, you know, why are we doing that?”

At the end of January, the efforts of DOGE brought greater attention to the rampant waste throughout the federal government, including directing taxpayer money toward programs related to “sexual health” in other countries.

Defending the spending that had been attributed to the previous administration, former Biden official Andrew Miller told The Times of Israel, “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.”

Meanwhile, USA Today referenced an April 2024 report from the U.S. Agency for International Development that identified $61 million worth of contraceptives had been sent to other countries in 2023, $8 million of which was spent on condoms while asserting none of the money had been used to send condoms to Gaza. The outlet further referenced $118 million spent on condoms between 2016-2022 that also hadn’t sent any of the prophylactics to Gaza.

Regardless, Musk responded to reports that $50 million had funded condoms for Gaza by stating, “My guess is that a lot of that money ended up in the pockets [of] Hamas, not actually condoms,” and, “Yes, even in the unlikely event that the money was actually spent on condoms, we should NOT be sending US taxpayer money to buy condoms for foreigners,” a sentiment widely agreed upon as corporate media belittled much of the wasteful spending.

Kevin Haggerty
Latest posts by Kevin Haggerty (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles