- Elon Musk admitted he would make errors in his work at DOGE, but work quickly to rectify them, after he was asked if the department had mistaken Hamas-controlled Gaza for the region of Gaza in Mozambique. He also outlined plans to build trust in his push to make government more efficient.
President Donald Trump was joined by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in the Oval Office for a press conference yesterday, where the entrepreneur was questioned about apparent errors in information he has shared since taking on the role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Previously the Trump administration—namely press secretary Karoline Leavitt—had claimed DOGE had uncovered an upcoming government expenditure of $50 million on condoms to be sent to Gaza.
Musk, who owns social media platform X, amplified this statement: He reposted a video of Leavitt’s response, adding: “Tip of iceberg.”
Tip of iceberg https://t.co/ixjtgut26G
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2025
Questions about the claim quickly arose.
Quoting data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Al Jazeera reported the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Mozambique has received $83 million in funding over the past four years for reproductive health projects.
The money, spent to prevent the spread of HIV, was deployed to two provinces: Inhambane and Gaza.
When this report was put to Musk by journalists in the White House, the richest man on the planet admitted he will make errors.
“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected,” Musk said. “Nobody’s going to bat 1,000. We will make mistakes, but we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”
Leavitt previously said the spending on condoms—at the time believed to be sent to Hamas-controlled Gaza—are a “preposterous waste of taxpayer dollars.”
But at the Monday meeting—also attended by his young son X Æ A-12—Musk did not confirm if the spending to prevent HIV in Africa had been green-lit once more.
He did add: “I’m not sure we should be sending $50 million worth of condoms to anywhere, frankly. I’m not sure that’s something Americans would be really excited about.
“But if it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza, I’m like, okay, that’s not as bad, but still, why are we doing that?”
Fortune approached the White House to confirm that DOGE had mistaken the Gaza Strip for Gaza in Mozambique, and whether the spending has since been approved.
‘An enormous number of condoms’
Sense-checks of DOGE’s apparent discovery were quick to be aired by those who previously worked on similar projects.
Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International, who served in the Biden administration as USAID’s lead official for COVID-19, pointed out that the U.S. government can buy condoms at around $0.05 apiece.
As such, $50 million would purchase 1 billion condoms. Musk himself said: “That really is an enormous number of condoms when you think about it.”
Aside from the logistics of how the American government would deliver this quantity of contraceptives to a region at war, it would also represent a sum of approximately 500 condoms for each of the 2 million residents of Gaza.
“Contraceptive access is an important health issue in crisis settings like Gaza,” Konyndyk added on social media platform Bluesky. “Unplanned pregnancies in a context of starvation and displacement can be hugely challenging and carry health risks.
“So it would be entirely appropriate for USAID to support contraceptive access in Gaza, albeit at a scale several orders of magnitude smaller than a billion condoms.”
So look - on the "Gaza condoms" thing. USAID procures condoms for around $0.05 apiece. $50m would be ONE BILLION condoms. What's going is here is NOT a billion condoms for Gaza. What's going on is that the bros at DOGE apparently can't read govt spreadsheets.
— Jeremy Konyndyk (@jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Musk’s trust conundrum
A problem for Musk, a private citizen and special government employee, is that he is overseeing billions of dollars of taxpayer money that may overlap with his personal interests.
The White House previously said Musk, worth $379 billion, would recuse himself in any situations where there may be a conflict of interest.
The entrepreneur doubled down on this pledge earlier in the week, adding that he didn’t “know of a case where an organization has been more transparent.”
He attributed this claim to DOGE posting its actions on its website and on his own site, X.
“The kinds of things we’re doing are very simple and basic,” he explained. “These are not individual judgment decisions, these are simply about having sensible checks and balances in the system itself to ensure that taxpayer money is spent well.
“It’s got nothing to do with, say, a contract of mine at all.”
“All of our actions are fully public,” he added, saying the public won’t be shy about raising conflict of interest concerns: “They’ll raise it immediately.”
