POLITIFACT WEEKLY: This week: Fact-checking Trump on birthright citizenship, birth tourism … Trump’s shifting timeline for Iran war’s end … Do you need a ‘detox’ cleanse? … Florida challenges NFL’s Rooney Rule as unconstitutional affront … Why doctors recommend the vitamin K shot for babies 2APR26

 

This week:  Fact-checking Trump on birthright citizenship, birth tourism … Trump’s shifting timeline for Iran war’s end … Do you need a ‘detox’ cleanse? … Florida challenges NFL’s Rooney Rule as unconstitutional affront … Why doctors recommend the vitamin K shot for babies A weekly note from the editor-in-chief of    Thank you for being a member. We couldn't do this without you. Refer a friend Share PolitiFact

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April 2 is International Fact-Checking Day. Here’s what it means in 2026. Greetings from Storrs, Connecticut, home to thousands of excited UConn students waiting to see how their men’s and women’s teams fare in the Final Four basketball tournaments this weekend. I came here Wednesday, on April Fools’ Day, not to talk basketball but to chat with student Huskies and members of the public about how to do their own fact-checking and not be fooled online.  My slideshow traced the steps our reporters took to prove a viral screenshot of President Donald Trump appealing to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to pardon Tiger Woods wasn’t real. I explained how relying on visual cues alone wasn’t enough to know a hyper-realistic video of a child crying over a service member’s coffin wasn’t authentic, and the motivations people may have in producing that sort of content for clicks.  When every day on social media feels like April Fools’, we need robust teams of journalists who call out attempts to misinform and also help people safely and smartly navigate their own networks. It’s an honor to work with journalists who care deeply about both fronts, and it’s inspiring to meet student journalists (and aspiring influencers) who want to share verified knowledge and practice sound reporting. Today is April 2, International Fact-Checking Day. It’s a day to recognize organizations all around the world that are dedicated to truth and facts, sometimes under immense pressure and with dwindling financial support.  We can’t take fact-checking for granted, which is why Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network started the holiday to follow the annual day of foolery. The IFCN, led by former PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief Angie Drobnic Holan, credentials more than 180 fact-checking organizations around the world who uphold the highest journalistic standards of transparency, fairness and independence. PolitiFact is a proud IFCN Code of Principles signatory. Poynter and the IFCN are publishing essays from prominent voices in fact-checking today, including PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson. In his column, Jacobson describes the urgency and unique challenges of reporting on war and other issues of democratic import: Determining the truth of something happening under classified conditions on the other side of the world is not easy, and fact-checkers’ assessments inevitably require caveats about what we don’t know. But PolitiFact and other fact-checking outlets know how to use the resources that do exist, including data and the assessments of experts we’ve found to be trustworthy. We value transparency — not anonymous sources, who may have an agenda — and we value fairness, including reaching out to whoever is making the claim, including the Trump White House. Keep reading Lou’s column and check out more columns: In the absence of truth, misinformation becomes harmful: Nepal’s experience shows why fact-checking matters in crises Fact-checking has to go where misinformation actually spreads IFCN Director Angie Drobnic Holan comments on Meta and community notes following the Oversight Board’s recent advisory  Share Tweet Forward Fact-checking Trump Regime change? Trump and other administration officials have declared that Iran has undergone regime change following the killing of many top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Removing top officials is a necessary step in regime change, but not sufficient, military and foreign policy experts said. After Khamenei’s death, Iranian government officials said his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, took power. Iran’s current government structure appears intact, bolstered by the same ideology and using the same levers of power. Because killing top Iranian leaders is a step toward regime change but insufficient to achieve it, we rate the statement Mostly False. Raw numbers. Trump often celebrates how many people are working. “More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country,” Trump said at a Saudi investment conference in Florida on March 27. This is Half True. In January, U.S. employment hit an all time high. But raw employment numbers are driven by overall population growth, so any president can claim an all-time high during their tenure. A more telling statistic about employment trends during Trump’s second term is that the past year-plus has seen the weakest job creation record in 16 years. You're a current PolitiFact donor. Thank you so much for supporting our work!  Sponsored:  Enroll in the University of Maryland’s Howard Center Data Journalism Training Program to get affordable, elite training in data analysis and visualization, and integrating AI into your workflow. Learn from world-class faculty in this self-paced online program that fits your schedule. The program consists of four 10-hour courses accessible to students across the globe. Learn how to use data and AI to elevate investigative reporting in your communities. ENROLL TODAY! Birthright citizenship (and Trump) at the Supreme Court: What to know Trump sat in the courtroom while the Supreme Court heard arguments over his executive order limiting birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants. Trump became the first sitting president in U.S. history to attend oral arguments. Lower courts have ruled that his 2025 order seeking to end birthright citizenship was unconstitutional. The justices asked questions of Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the government, and Cecillia Wang, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union who argued against the order.  Trump left the courtroom after Sauer finished his opening argument, and wasn’t present as the justices, including some of his nominees, posed skeptical questions of the administration’s position. The justices pressed Sauer and Wang on the specifics of the 14th Amendment and a previous Supreme Court case that ruled the children of immigrants born in the U.S. were entitled to birthright citizenship. Justice Neil Gorsuch asked Sauer whether under his argument “Native Americans today are birthright citizens.” “I think so,” Sauer said. “I have to think that through.” Minutes after the oral arguments concluded, Trump took to Truth Social: “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!”  Trump has repeatedly made this false statement. Days before the oral arguments, Trump also said birthright citizenship was meant for the children of enslaved people and is abused by wealthy foreigners. Time for a fact-check: Read Trump misleads about birthright citizenship, birth tourism — Maria Ramirez Uribe Since 1961, doctors have recommended a dose of vitamin K shortly after birth. Decades of research have affirmed the shot’s safety. Here's why doctors recommend babies get the vitamin K shot. (PolitiFact's Grace Abels) Trump’s shifting timeline for Iran war ending Trump addressed the Iran war in a primetime address Wednesday night, saying the U.S. was on track to complete its military goals “shortly, very shortly,” without providing new specifics.  “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” he said.  Trump said other countries that are more dependent on oil and commerce passing through the Strait of Hormuz should take the lead on reopening it. He said discussions with Iran’s new leaders were ongoing but the U.S. would attack electric generating plants “very hard and probably simultaneously” without a deal. With the war in its fifth week, PolitiFact compiled a timeline of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s shifting expectations for how long the war would last. READ: How long will the Iran war last? See Trump’s timeline shift — Amy Sherman and Zoe Weyand How to ‘detox’ your body for free (Hint: It doesn’t require juice, teas or flushes) The idea of starting fresh and clearing toxins and gunk from our bodies sounds good. And if you’re in the mood for a change, a profitable marketplace welcomes you. Detox teas. Detox foot pads. Detox diets. Juice cleanses. Colon flushes. Supplements to remove toxins from the body, reset gut health, or "flush" out certain organs like the colon, liver, or kidneys. A multitude of products offer to get your insides squeaky clean. But here’s the thing: Most people don’t need outside products to "detoxify" their bodies. The human body already has a robust natural system for clearing unwanted chemicals out of the body, and there are ways to support and facilitate those existing processes.  The best part? It’s free. Here’s what experts say about why you should forgo those appealing-sounding "detoxes" and "cleanses" and embrace your body’s existing superpowers. READ: Detoxes don’t have evidence and can be unhealthy  — Grace Abels Quick links to more fact-checks & reports  ICE agents are at some airports, but this video of a man being detained is a skit. | Watch this fact-check explained on Instagram  What we know about the new COVID-19 variant ‘cicada’ or BA.3.2. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says the NFL’s Rooney Rule violates Florida law. Does it? Did Michael Whatley appoint a sex offender to party roles while GOP chair? PolitiFact North Carolina explores. Golfer Gary Woodland’s PGA win spotlights PTSD caused by surgery and medical trauma The Poynter Report Podcast: How a CNN reporter covered war from inside Iran Have questions or ideas for our coverage? Send me an email. Thanks for reading! Katie Sanders PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief Send this link to your friends so they can sign up for this email!

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$50 million for condoms in Gaza? There’s no evidence for the White House claim. 29JAN25

Four Pinocchios

 ONE can be forgiven if one comes to believe the cross karoline leavitt, White House FF* press secretary frequently wears is not a symbol of her faith but is mere jewelry, after all, there is no way a person of true faith, a person true to their faith, would not be able to come before the press and the American people to repeat and defend the lies, the hatred, the racism, the greed, the misogyny, class warfare and fearmongering being spread by the drumpf / trump-vance administration and the gop / greed over people-republican party. UNLESS of course they are believers in, followers of the neo-nazi, fascist religious right-wing extremist magat cult with it's alt-jesus icon and "christian" sharia anti-beatitudes beliefs. Oh and here is the truth about another of their lies, this one exposed by the Washington Post fact checkers....

$50 million for condoms in Gaza? There’s no evidence for the White House claim.

The figure would rain 1.5 billion condoms on an area only double the size of the District of Columbia.

Updated

January 29, 2025 at 5:28 p.m. ESTtoday at 5:28 p.m. EST

By Glenn Kessler

Glenn Kessler has reported on domestic and foreign policy for more than four decades. Send him statements to fact check by emailing him or sending a DM on Twitter

“DOGE and OMB also found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza. That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money. So, that’s what this pause is focused on, being good stewards of tax dollars.”

— White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, remarks at a news briefing, Jan. 29

In her maiden news briefing, Leavitt defended the Trump administration’s freeze on federal grants by pointing to a particular line item as “preposterous” — $50 million to fund condoms in Gaza.

Regular readers know that we have a high bar for fact-checking flacks, as they are paid to mislead and dissemble. We prefer to keep our scrutiny on policymakers and people with authority. But this was Leavitt’s first news conference, and she made an astonishing claim that spread rapidly on social media.

Could it be true? When we queried Leavitt, she responded by sending a Fox News article that initially just quoted her own statement. Quoting yourself is not evidence. Moreover, the article quoted an unnamed White House official as saying that the “State Department halted several million dollars going to condoms in Gaza this past weekend.”

That’s not the same as $50 million.

Last year, the State Department launched a five-year, $50 million program to improve health care in Gaza. But the contractor, Anera, said it was not supplying condoms.

“Definitely no purchase of condoms in our program, and there are no components for family planning in the GHRA [Gaza Health Recovery Activity],” spokesman Steve Fake said. “We have asked around, and no one is sure what this is referring to.”

Last night, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce posted a thread on X in which she cited examples of “unjustified and non-emergency spending.” The first example was “Condoms. Prevented $102 million in unjustified funding to a contractor in Gaza, including money for contraception.”

She did not identify the contractor, but, in an email to State Department reporters, her office said it was “$102,236,000 to fund the International Medical Corps in Gaza.” IMC is a global first responder based in Los Angeles.

Could half — or even a significant portion — of that contract be for condoms? There is no evidence of that.

The Facts

Let’s start with why the U.S. government distributes condoms overseas: It’s to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Perhaps the Trump administration believes that is a preposterous waste of money, but many of those condom purchases are for a George W. Bush program called the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which is credited with saving 26 million lives. No countries or territories in the Middle East are part of PEPFAR.

More broadly, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) distributes condoms to address gaps in their availability and use, especially in low- and middle-income countries, to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

A USAID report for fiscal 2023, the most recent detailing condom expenditures unrelated to PEPFAR, showed that about $46,000 was spent on condoms in the Middle East — but only in Jordan. The report said that was the first shipment of condoms to the Middle East since fiscal 2019, when $1 million was spent.

Indeed, according to the report, spending $50 million on condoms for an entity roughly double the size of Washington would be a huge increase in condom spending. From fiscal 2016 to 2022, USAID spent $118.6 million to buy 3.6 billion male condoms for 60 countries. That’s an average of $17 million a year for the entire world — one-third of the amount Leavitt said would be spent just on Gaza. (USAID also distributes female condoms, but that’s a small fraction of the spending.)

In effect, USAID has been buying condoms at an average price of 3.3 cents. Was the U.S. government really going to distribute more than 1.5 billion condoms in Gaza? That makes little sense.

Traditionally, family planning in the Palestinian territories, including Gaza, was handled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The agency distributed oral contraceptives and condoms, but President Joe Biden froze U.S. funding a year ago after Israel claimed that 12 of the agency’s 33,000 employees participated in Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.

The war that erupted after that attack created a family planning crisis in Gaza, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation. “Contraception is also in very short supply, with reports of women sharing contraceptive pills leading to unintended pregnancies,” the IPPF said in a 2023 report. “The unavailability of condoms, which were already heavily restricted in Gaza, will lead to the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.”

With the ceasefire now in place, it’s possible there is a pressing need to fill. But we could not find any evidence that the International Medical Corps contracts called for condom delivery.

Todd Bernhardt, IMC spokesman, told The Fact Checker that “no U.S. government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms.”

In a November report describing its activities in Gaza, IMC said it deployed two state-of-the-art field hospitals — the first in January 2024, with 200 beds, and the second in July 2024, with 50 beds. The hospitals operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Each day they see as many as 2,000 patients, perform an average of 45 surgeries and deliver an average of 10 babies, the report said. It did not mention any family planning efforts. CBS News last year aired a report on American doctors working at the hospitals.

“Since January 2024, International Medical Corps has provided health care to more than 383,000 civilians who had no other access to services or treatment, including performing about 11,000 surgeries, with one-third of those categorized as major or moderate procedures,” Bernhardt said. “We have assisted in the delivery of some 5,000 babies, about 20 percent of them via the Caesarean section. In addition, International Medical Corps has screened 111,000 people for malnutrition, treated 2,767 for acute malnutrition, distributed micronutrient supplements to 36,000 people, and more.”

“If the stop-work order remains in place, we will be unable to sustain these activities beyond the next week or so,” he said.

After this fact check was published, a White House official sent The Fact Checker a statement claiming, without providing documentation, that two $50 million buckets of aid for Gaza via the International Medical Corps that were suspended included “family planning programming including emergency contraception; Sexual health-care including prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs); and Adolescent sexual and reproductive health.” The statement added that this included contraceptives and that “condoms have traditionally always been used for family planning in developing countries by USAID.”

The White House official declined to say how much money in these contracts related to family planning. From our review of International Medical Corps contracts, we did not find any funds earmarked for contraception or family planning. In any case, the White House statement appears to be a pullback of the original claim.

The Pinocchio Test

On the face of it, Leavitt’s statement that $50 million was going to be spent on condoms is preposterous. That figure is three times the yearly average spent by the U.S. government for the entire world. Moreover, neither she nor the State Department could provide documentation supporting this claim. The department identified a contractor that it claimed was distributing condoms in Gaza, but the organization says no U.S. money is involved.

Leavitt earns Four Pinocchios. Not an auspicious debut.

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