The Trump regime has been spewing out one outrageous lie after another in what some commentators have called a “Firehose of B---s----“. While journalists and opposition politicians are trying to fact check one lie, they fire out two more. It’s whack-a mole on high speed. Here are three of them.
Condoms for Gaza
The latest
was Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s claim that the US spent $50 million on
condoms for Gaza. Trump repeated it the next day. Leavitt used this outrageous
sounding claim to justify Trump’s funding freeze and Musk’s DOGE (department of
government efficiency).
Here are
the facts. In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, about $7
million worth of condoms were distributed by USAid (United States Agency for
International Development) with nearly 90% going to Africa to combat AIDS and
none to the Middle East. One USAid shipment of $45,000 went to Jordan but did
not include any condoms. The International Medical Corps, a US organization,
was to get $102 million for operating two field hospitals in Gaza; none of that
money would be spend on condoms. Anera, a non-profit has a 5 year $50 million
contract to provide health care in Gaza, none of which will be for condoms.
Mackey
points out that the contraceptive aid program was not just Biden’s program; $40
million was spent on contraceptive foreign aid in 2019 by the Trump
administration.
Rescuing Astronauts
Early
Wednesday Trump posted to Truth Social “I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to
‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by
the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on @Space
Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck
Elon!!!”
Musk played along with the charade posting on X “The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home
the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space Station as soon as possible. We will do
so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”
Here are the facts. The NASA
astronauts in question are Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. They are not
stranded and certainly not abandoned. NASA has had a plan for months to return
them to Earth using Space-X. The astronauts were prepared for a possible
lengthy stay and their health is being monitored by NASA medical staff.
Next Trump will take credit for
the sun rising in the morning.
Military turned on the water in California
On Monday night (January 27)
Trump announced on Truth Social that “The United States Military just entered
the great state of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER
flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. The days of putting
a Fake Environmental argument over the PEOPLE are OVER! Enjoy the water
California!!!”
Here are
the facts. First a little background. For weeks Donald Trump has been blaming
the Los Angeles fire on California state government incompetence and offered
his brilliant and simple advice to bring more water from northern part of the
state to the south. I will deal with the LA fires in more detail in another
post but all you need to know for this story is that a water shortage is not
the problem.
The
California Department of Water Resources responded in a post on X that “the military did not enter California”. “The
federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for
maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain
plentiful”.
When
questioned Tuesday about the military turning on the water, Press Secretary
Leavitt said “The Army Corps of Engineers
has been on the ground to respond to the devastation from these wildfires”
and added that the changes occurred after Trump “applied tremendous pressure on state and local officials”.
Yes the
Army Corps of Engineers has been on the ground in California – since 1849. They
are a civilian organization, not military. And it isn’t the ACE that run the
federal pumping system, it’s the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
There are
many more examples. Tomorrow I’ll talk about the Columbia deportation situation.
Sources
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/29/trump-condoms-gaza
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