The Biggest Hoaxes Spread By Elon Musk And DOGE, Debunked

Topline

As billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency scours federal agencies for cost savings, Musk and his team have repeatedly made baseless or false claims about government spending—or exaggerated the level of fraud and waste uncovered at some agencies.

Key Facts

Did Doge Save $8 Billion By Cutting One Ice Contract?

No. DOGE published a list of cost savings on its website earlier this week, and one of the largest was a purported $8 billion canceled technical support contract for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Diversity and Civil Rights dating back to 2022, according to the New York Times. However, while the contract was initially valued at $8 billion, the price tag was later updated to a much more modest $8 million on Jan. 22, 2025. Just $2.5 million was spent on the contract, suggesting DOGE saved only $5.5 million. DOGE’s site now lists the contract’s savings at just $8 million.

Did Doge Close Jimmy Carter’s Office In Atlanta?

Not exactly. DOGE lists $128,233 in savings on “allowance to former presidents” after the agency said it closed a nearly 7,700-square-foot office in Atlanta. Data from the General Services Administration shows a property of the same size leased from President Jimmy Carter’s charity, the Carter Center, at $128,233. The GSA provides funds for each former president annually, though Carter’s allowance would have ended anyways on Dec. 30, 2024, the day after he died.

Is There Widespread Social Security Fraud?

Musk has claimed the Social Security Administration is riddled with mass fraud, including scores of payments made to dead people—and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said “tens of millions” are receiving fraudulent payments. However, while Social Security fraud certainly exists, there’s no evidence it takes place at anywhere near the scale Musk and Leavitt have claimed. The Inspector’s General office that oversees the agency found erroneous payments accounted for less than 1% of total payments between 2015 and 2023. The office has found improper payments to dead people, though on a far smaller scale, and while tens of millions of people over the age of 100 who might be deceased remain in the SSA database, it’s not clear how many actually receive payments. The SSA has previously said payments are automatically canceled for anyone over age 115.

Is Gold Missing From Fort Knox?

There’s no indication this is the case. Musk questioned on social media whether the federal government’s gold reserves—valued at about $435 billion—at Fort Knox are “still there” or “gone,” suggesting there should be a “live video walkthrough” of the facility. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., backed Musk’s claims and called for an audit of the fort. Paul’s father, former Rep. Ron Paul, said he thinks “the gold is there,” though he questioned who owned the reserves because “there’s a lot of borrowing and gimmickry that goes on.” In 2017, former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said Fort Knox’s gold depository is “freakishly well secured” and “the gold is safe.”

Did The Government Pay Reuters For “social Deception?”

No. Musk reposted a claim on X made by Mario Nawfal, who has 2 million followers and hosts the “Roundtable Show” on X Spaces, who alleged the Department of Defense made a $9 million payment to Reuters for a “large scale social deception” project, citing the USASpending.gov website. Though the Department of Defense did make a $9 million payment, it was actually issued to Thomson Reuters Special Services—the data and research arm of Reuters, not the newsroom—and the project was not to deceive society, as Musk’s post may imply. The project, according to the Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was to fund research for “automated defense against social engineering attacks.” Trump also attacked “Radical Left Reuters” on Truth Social and demanded the organization return the money—though the payment was issued during his first term.

Did Fema Spend $59 Million On Housing Migrants In Nyc Luxury Hotels?

No. Although FEMA did allocate $59 million to New York last week as part of a payment package approved last year, Musk made multiple misleading claims about the payment in a post on X on Monday. Contrary to Musk’s post, the money sent to New York was not “disaster relief” and came from a pool of money separate from FEMA’s disaster efforts. The money was approved by Congress last year as part of the Shelter and Services Program, which FEMA administers alongside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. New York was allocated about $237 million as a partial reimbursement for the about $7 billion it has spent on housing migrants, The New York Times reported, and a $59 million payment was made last week as part of this allocation. Of that payment, about $19 million was spent on hotel fees, but contrary to Musk’s post, New York officials said these payments were not made on luxury hotels. Also unlike Musk’s post, New York officials said they have not received any request to return the money.

Are Anti-Doge Protests Funded By Ngos?

Musk amplified an unproven speculative claim, made without evidence by the world’s most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan, in a post on X on Tuesday, claiming “so many fake protests” against Musk and DOGE are “paid for by the same corrupt NGOs that @DOGE is defunding.” Musk’s post, viewed more than 11 million times, contained a clip from Rogan’s podcast released earlier this week in which he said he “guarantees” anti-Musk protests are “organized by the same people that are going to lose a shitload of money based on all these discoveries at DOGE.” Rogan continued to make false or misleading claims, including that USAID funded a lab that “invented” COVID-19, and provided no evidence for USAID or any other government agency or NGO funding anti-Musk protests. Rogan baselessly claimed NGOs are “using their access to these mailing lists” and are “mobilizing other NGOs” to organize protests, without naming any specific organizations or protests. Protests against the Trump administration, Musk and DOGE have been held in multiple states in recent weeks, including in California, Minnesota, Michigan and Texas. Some of these protesters have organized online with the hashtag #buildtheresistance, the Los Angeles Times reported, but there’s no evidence to suggest these protests were funded by NGOs or agencies that DOGE plans to defund.

Are Bureaucrats Making “tens Of Millions” On Taxpayer Money?

Musk claimed while taking questions from reporters at the White House on Tuesday that federal employees, including those at USAID, “managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars” while working for the federal government, accusing them of profiting off of taxpayer money. He did not name names, but said “quite a few people,” whom he called “fraudsters,” were receiving “kickbacks.” Musk offered no evidence of who is getting rich or by how much, and he did not elaborate on specific instances of any criminal activity, including fraud.

Is Usaid A Form Of “money Laundering?”

There’s no evidence to suggest USAID has engaged in money laundering. On Saturday afternoon, Musk reposted a claim on X that suggested USAID was a “form of money laundering tax payers money into far-left organizations,” adding: “Absolutely,” though neither poster offered sources or factual information. Although Republicans have criticized the organization for alleged wasteful spending, there’s no evidence that USAID was engaging in criminal behavior to support left-wing organizations.

Did Samantha Power Earn $23 Million As Usaid Chief?

No. Musk responded to a post on X claiming former USAID chief Samantha Power earned $23 million between 2020 and 2024. Power received a salary of $183,100 while working as administrator of USAID, according to federal records, and there’s no evidence suggesting she benefitted from her position to the tune of millions of dollars. In 2020, Power disclosed royalties and sales from her books—none of which exceeded $1,000—in addition to positions in several exchange-traded funds and mutual funds, including some holdings with Vanguard valued up to $1 million. In 2024, Power disclosed a retirement fund valued at up to $1 million and other assets held in ETFs and mutual funds. Over four years, some of Power’s assets rose in value, but many of them were mutual funds that track broad stock market indexes—and there isn’t any evidence that growth had anything to do with her job at USAID.

Were Taxpayer Funds Used To Create ‘transgender Mice’?

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., claimed in a hearing that $10 million in taxpayer funds—not specifically involving USAID—supported studies that created “transgender mice, rats and monkeys.” Mace said those studies “surgically [mutated] animal genitals” and forced animals to undergo “invasive surgeries and hormone therapies.” While some U.S. funding has been used on research to study the affects of hormone therapy on mice—as revealed in a report from the anti-animal testing White Coat Waste Project—none involved surgery or monkeys. Other studies only proposed using mice to study the effects of hormone therapy, including how it affects responsiveness to vaccines, whether hormone treatment impacts the effectiveness of a drug often used in sexual assault and how hormones shift behavior. Neither Mace’s office nor the White Coat Waste Project immediately responded to requests for comment about whether any studies involved surgeries.

Did Chelsea Clinton Get A Big Paycheck From Usaid?

No. Several viral posts on X claimed Chelsea Clinton raked in a large $84 million sum from USAID—but the reference to Clinton actually refers to her family’s Clinton Foundation, and the only Clinton-related organization that has received USAID money is the Clinton Health Access Initiative, to which USAID gave $7.5 million in 2019, according to USASpending.gov.The grant given to the Clinton Health Access Initiative was used to fund health services in Zambia between 2019 and 2021, and Chelsea Clinton receives no compensation as a board member, including during the years the grant money was used, according to IRS documents.

Did Usaid Pay Celebrities To Visit Ukraine—including Ben Stiller And Angelina Jolie?

There is no evidence USAID paid celebrities to visit Ukraine. Several viral social media posts accused USAID of paying Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn and Orlando Bloom to travel to Ukraine and take pictures with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Forbes has reached out to Stiller, Jolie, Penn and Bloom for comment). Stiller called the claims “totally false” and “untrue” in a post on X, clarifying he self-funded his trip to Ukraine and has not received money from USAID, and Penn’s litigation attorney Mathew Rosengart told Forbes the claims are “completely false,” noting Penn self-funded his visit and threatening to take legal action if the “defamatory statements continue.” Musk amplified these false claims on X, reposting a video that was fabricated to look like it had been reported by E! News (E! News denied in a statement to AFP that it created the video).

Did Usaid Fund Research That Caused Covid-19?

No. Musk reposted an unproven claim that USAID funded research by scientific nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance that led to the creation of COVID-19. Although USAID and other government agencies have given it funds, and some of EcoHealth Alliance’s methods are controversial, the group has previously said the viruses it studied were not similar enough to COVID-19 to have been related to the start of the pandemic.

Did Politico Get Paid By The Government?

Yes—but for subscriptions, not USAID grants. Musk, Trump and other right-wing figures have spread false claims that USAID gave the news outlet Politico millions of dollars, which Trump baselessly claimed was to write “good stories about the Democrats,” suggesting this could be the “biggest scandal” in history. But Politico never received any donations from USAID, according to funding records on USASpending.gov and a statement from the company. USAID spent $44,000 between 2023 and 2024 on subscriptions to Politico Pro, which the news outlet describes as “a professional subscription service used by companies, organizations, and, yes, some government agencies,” and is targeted to specialized users in the private sector who want to track legislation, policy and news (subscriptions reportedly start at about $10,000). Politico said it has never received any government subsidies or grants, and clarified USAID’s purchase was a “transaction,” not “funding.” Conspiracies about Politico being funded by USAID spread after a “technical error” caused paychecks for Politico staff to be delayed earlier this week, leading some X users to jump to the false conclusion that USAID, which was gutted before the payroll issue, must have been funding the outlet.

Did Usaid Fund Other Media Organizations—like The Bbc?

Other news outlets faced similar hoaxes as Politico, as X users made misleading—and in some cases, outright false—claims about payments by USAID to media companies. Like Politico, some of these transactions were payments for subscriptions by government agencies—not grants or subsidies. The New York Times said it had not received any grants, and clarified the federal funds it received were “payments for subscriptions that government offices and agencies have purchased to better understand the world.” Reuters and the Associated Press also said they have not received government grants, and agencies had purchased subscriptions instead. USAID and other government agencies have funded some global media organizations, but not many of the big-name outlets targeted on X. The BBC said in a statement its charity arm supporting local media worldwide, BBC Media Action, received about 8% of its income from the U.S. government between 2023 and 2024, but the charity is wholly separate from BBC News, which did not receive any funding. Federal records show USAID made a $1.9 million donation to the BBC’s media charity—not BBC News—to support its efforts in India. The rumors USAID funded BBC News were boosted by Musk and billionaire Marc Andreessen in a now-deleted tweet. USAID’s funding efforts have supported other journalism outfits in countries with limited democracy or free press, including media in Ukraine and Russia as well as the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which supports corruption reporting worldwide.

Did Usaid Fund Condoms In Gaza—or Afghanistan?

Various rumors that DOGE identified millions in U.S. spending on condoms in Gaza and the Middle East have spread with no evidence. Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed last week USAID spent $50 million on condoms in Gaza. Leavitt may have been referring to USAID grants issued to the International Medical Corps, a group that provides aid to victims of war, totaling more than $100 million, in which “family planning programming,” including contraceptives, were included, which is typical for aid packages to developing countries, the Associated Press reported. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., claimed in a CNN interview Thursday that USAID spent $15 million on condoms for the Taliban, echoing a claim made earlier this week by Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla. The Atlantic reported USAID had in the past funded condoms for Afghan citizens, not for the Taliban (which controls the Afghan government), but CNN reported the agency did not fund any condoms for the entire Middle East during the three previous fiscal years. In posts on X, Musk said the United States should “NOT be sending US taxpayer money to buy condoms for foreigners,” and baselessly claimed money for contraceptives “ended up in the pockets [of] Hamas.”

Did Usaid Fund A ‘transgender Opera’ And A ‘dei Musical?’

No. Leavitt, and several viral posts on X, claimed USAID spent thousands on a “transgender opera in Colombia”—and although the government did give a grant to a Colombian university to increase transgender representation in opera, it wasn’t USAID. The State Department gave $25,000 to the Universidad De Los Andes in Bogotá for that purpose in 2021. Similarly, the State Department—not USAID—gave $70,000 in 2022 to fund a musical in Ireland that promoted “diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.”

Did Usaid Spend $6 Million On ‘tourism In Egypt?’

No. USAID announced a $6 million payment to Egypt to “increase educational opportunities and strengthen the livelihoods of the people of North Sinai”—not to fund tourism, as the White House claimed. The White House’s fact sheet links to a USAID announcement that does not mention tourism at all and was issued in 2019—during Trump’s first administration.

Were Any Of The Controversial Claims Of Usaid Spending True?

Yes. USAID did provide funding for several programs that have been slammed by Republicans. USAID gave $1.5 million in 2022 to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities” and to increase employment opportunities for LGBTQ Serbians. The payment was slammed by Leavitt and several Republican members of Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. The White House also criticized a $2 million payment by USAID for “sex changes” in Guatemala—which is not true. But USAID did make a $2 million payment to “strengthen trans-led organizations” and “gender-affirming health care” in Guatemala, though gender-affirming care encompasses more than surgeries and it’s unclear what medical care the grant was used for.

Further Reading

Why Is Elon Musk Attacking USAID? How Partisan Politics Made Foreign Aid Agency Suddenly So Controversial (Forbes)