Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s resolution to freeze international support over the weekend included pulling thousands and thousands of dollars-worth of US funding for “condoms in Gaza,” a White Home official informed Fox Information Digital.
The revelation got here because the official defined {that a} separate memo from the Workplace of Administration and Funds will briefly pause grants, loans and federal help applications pending a evaluation into whether or not the funding coincides with President Donald Trump’s govt orders, equivalent to these associated to ending variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI), the Inexperienced New Deal, and funding nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) “that undermine the nationwide curiosity.”
“If the exercise just isn’t in battle with the President’s priorities, it’ll proceed with no points,” the White Home official informed Fox Information Digital. “That is just like how HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] stopped the movement of grant cash to the WHO [World Health Organization] after President Trump introduced the US withdrawal from the group. Or how the State Division halted a number of million {dollars} going to condoms in Gaza this previous weekend.”
Fox Information Digital reached out to the State Division on Tuesday looking for extra data.
In her first-ever briefing Tuesday, White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned that the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) and the OBM discovered “that there was about to be $50 million taxpayer {dollars} that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza.”
“That may be a preposterous waste of taxpayer cash. In order that’s what this pause is concentrated on, being good stewards of tax {dollars},” Leavitt informed reporters. She mentioned DOGE and OBM additionally discovered $37 million was about to be despatched to the WHO earlier than Trump’s govt order breaking ties with the worldwide well being physique.
The Jerusalem Submit reported in 2020 that scores of condoms have been getting used to create IED-carrying balloons that winds would carry into southern Israel, elevating alarm on schoolyards, farmlands and highways.
On the time, the Submit reported that the improvised explosive units – floated into Israel through inflated contraceptives – burned hundreds of hectares of land and brought about “thousands and thousands of shekels of injury.” It’s not clear if the observe continues.
Simply two days after the Oct. 7, 2023, assaults, which concerned Hamas terrorists brutally raping a number of the roughly 1,200 individuals killed in southern Israel and tons of of others introduced again into Gaza as hostages, a worldwide NGO often known as the Worldwide Deliberate Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched a press release concerning the ensuing conflict and escalating violence.
The NGO claimed that any blockade of support shipments into Gaza would infringe on their “huge positive factors made in life-saving sexual and reproductive healthcare on this area.”
“Palestinians are systematically denied sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights,” the chief director of a corresponding NGO, the Palestinian Household Planning and Safety Affiliation (PFPPA), mentioned on the time. “Our well being system has been repeatedly focused and depleted by the Israeli occupation, and the extra it disintegrates, the extra it’ll hinder the total realization of those rights for girls and women.”
On Sunday, Rubio paused all US international help funded by or by way of the State Division and US Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID) for evaluation.
The transfer got here in response to Trump’s govt order, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States International Assist,” issued final week directing a sweeping 90-day pause on most US international help disbursed by way of the State Division.
The State Division mentioned Sunday that Rubio was initiating a evaluation of “all international help applications to make sure they’re environment friendly and according to US international coverage below the America First agenda.”
“President Trump said clearly that america is not going to blindly dole out cash with no return for the American individuals. Reviewing and realigning international help on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not only the precise factor to do, it’s a ethical crucial. The Secretary is proud to guard America’s funding with a deliberate and even handed evaluation of how we spend international help {dollars} abroad,” a State Division spokesperson mentioned Sunday.
“The mandate from the American individuals was clear – we should refocus on American nationwide pursuits,” the assertion added. “The Division and USAID take their function as stewards of taxpayer {dollars} very critically. The implementation of this Govt Order and the Secretary’s route furthers that mission. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio has mentioned, ‘Each greenback we spend, each program we fund, and each coverage we pursue should be justified with the reply to 3 easy questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America extra affluent?’”
Rubio had particularly exempted solely emergency meals applications and navy support to Israel and Egypt from the freeze on international help.
On Monday, not less than 56 senior USAID officers have been positioned on go away pending an investigation into alleged efforts to thwart Trump’s orders, the Related Press reported, citing a present official and a former official at USAID.
An inner USAID discover despatched late Monday and obtained by the AP mentioned new performing administrator Jason Grey had recognized “a number of actions inside USAID that look like designed to bypass the President’s Govt Orders and the mandate from the American individuals.” “In consequence, now we have positioned quite a few USAID staff on administrative go away with full pay and advantages till additional discover whereas we full our evaluation of those actions,” Grey wrote.
The senior company officers placed on go away have been skilled staff who had served in a number of administrations, together with Trump’s, the previous USAID official mentioned.