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| Government Corruption | |||
| Fact-checking Elon Musk's claims in the Oval Office | |||
| 2025-02-13 | |||
The billionaire, who was making his first major media appearance since beginning his role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), said his team was seeking to improve transparency in government. But he provided no evidence when making sweeping statements about corruption in government agencies and also defended false allegations he had spread about US funds being used to send condoms to Gaza. BBC Verify has examined these claims made by Musk. SENDING CONDOMS TO GAZA? Musk was challenged by a reporter about a recent White House claim, which he has repeated, that it had stopped $50m (£40.2m) worth of condoms being sent to the Gaza Strip. The reporter asked whether the condoms were actually due to be sent to Gaza Province in Mozambique. Musk appeared to concede that could be the case, and responded: "I'm not sure we should be sending $50m dollars on condoms anywhere… if it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza, I'm like, OK that's not as bad, but still you know why are we doing that?" Several posts on X have highlighted a US commitment to fund an HIV-prevention programme in Gaza, Mozambique. US government records show that an American-funded scheme for Gaza, Mozambique was awarded $83.5m for "prevention, care, support and treatment interventions within HIV and TB facilities and communities" for a programme running until September 2026. BBC Verify contacted the aid agency that granted the funding - the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) - who told us that no money has been used to procure condoms. The US State Department told us two $50m donations due to be sent to the Gaza Strip via the International Medical Corps had been stopped, which it claimed included contraceptives such as condoms. But responding to the claims, the charity said it wasn't aware of any future US funding for condoms or any other contraceptives for Gaza. They also said none of the funds they'd received from the US government since October 2023 had been used to procure or distribute condoms within the Gaza Strip. The US has, in the past, provided contraceptives to countries around the world as part of family planning programmes. In 2023 fiscal year (1 October - 30 September) $60.8m was sent abroad for contraceptives - with about $7m of that for condoms - according to a USAID report. None of this was listed for Gaza in the Middle East. $5.4m of contraceptives were listed for Mozambique, but none of this was for condoms. These contraceptive programmes existed under Trump's previous administration as well. During the 2019 fiscal year, for example, about $40m was spent sending contraceptives abroad, according to another USAID report. 'THE WOMAN THAT WALKED AWAY WITH $30M'? Although he did not mention her by name, Elon Musk appeared to reference former USAID administrator Samantha Power's alleged net worth. President Trump asked Musk to "mention some of the things that your team has found some of the crazy numbers, including the woman that walked away with about 30 million." There have been claims on social media about Power's net worth increasing to this amount during her time at USAID. One post claims: "Ex-USAID chief Samantha Power's net worth skyrockets - from $6.7m to $30m on a $180k salary… Where did the extra $23.3m come from? And all of this in just 3 years!" Musk responded to another post on X about Power's work at USAID, asking "how did she accumulate wealth that is 100 times her after tax salary?"
Social security provides a base income for people in the US who are either retired or can't work because of a disability. It covers about 67 million Americans. Regarding the programme, Musk said: "There's crazy things… cross re-examination of Social Security, and we've got people in there that are 150 years old." He did not provide evidence of this. BBC Verify has been unable to find specific evidence for the claim - although we don't have access to all the US social security data that Musk has been granted. "I think they're probably dead… and then there's a whole bunch of social security payments where there's no identifying information," Musk added. … PAPERWORK STORED DOWN AN OLD MINE SHAFT? Speaking about government inefficiencies Musk claimed only 10,000 federal employees could retire per month because the paperwork is written down manually and kept in a mine. He said: "The limiting factor is the speed at which the mine shaft elevator can move determines how many people can retire from the federal government, and the elevator breaks down sometimes, and then nobody can retire." That same day, Musk's department posted about the mine on X. "Federal employee retirements are processed using paper, by hand, in an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania. 700+ mine workers operate 230 feet underground to process ~10,000 applications per month, which are stored in manila envelopes and cardboard boxes. The retirement process takes multiple months." Musk is referring to Iron Mountain, a high security storage facility in Pennsylvania which holds government documents in a former limestone mine. A 2014 article by The Washington Post reported that the retirement paperwork at the facility was processed "entirely by hand, and almost entirely on paper".
… the mine shaft elevator can move determines how many people can retire from the federal government." Iron Mountain is a 330,000-square-foot data center more than 200 feet deep. It uses a 35-acre underground reservoir to create a geothermal cooling system. A report from 2021 reveals how the government tried (and failed) to digitize the process for decades. $106 million later, and failing to do so, the government decided to keep the old process. "$106 million later, the OPM facility resumed functioning with the processes established back in 1977," STWserve dot com reported. | |||
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #4 As the BBC was a recipient of USAID funding, supposedly, maybe they aren’t very objective in their reporting of Trump and Musk. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2025-02-13 12:24 |
| #3 Gaza is a province of Mozambique. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-02-13 11:46 |
| #2 Question did the US send $50m worth of Condoms or $50m to BUY them? If to buy how was it verified? |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2025-02-13 11:42 |
| #1 Elon Musk denies 'hostile takeover' of government in surprise White House appearance |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-02-12 17:22 |