WHAT WAS CLAIMED
E! News published a video stating celebrities received funds from USAID to visit Ukraine.
OUR VERDICT
False. The video is fake and there's no evidence USAID funded the visits.
AAP FACTCHECK - Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr have shared a fake video which claims the US government aid agency paid millions of dollars to celebrities to visit Ukraine and promote the popularity of president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The claim is being made in a video which appears to have been published by entertainment news website E! News.
A popular conservative X account shared the video on February 5, where it has since gained millions of views.
"Did you know that USAID spent your tax dollars (millions) to fund celebrity trips to Ukraine, all to boost Zelensky's popularity among Americans?" the caption says.
The video includes E! News branding and claims the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) paid $20 million to Angelina Jolie, $5 million to Sean Penn, $8 million to Orlando Bloom, $4 million to Ben Stiller and $1.5 million to Jean-Claude Van Damme.
The X post was shared by Donald Trump Jr, and Elon Musk, who now runs an office within the executive office of the president called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The claim is also being shared widely on Facebook and Instagram.
A spokesperson for the news outlet confirmed to AFP that the video "is not authentic and did not originate from E! News." There is also no evidence it was published on the E! News website or E! News social media accounts.
USAID is a government agency that delivers billions of dollars in overseas humanitarian aid.
On January 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order freezing all foreign assistance for 90 days, with an exemption for emergency food programs and military support to Israel and Egypt.
Mr Musk described the agency as a "criminal organisation" and since then the majority of staff have been placed on administrative leave.
While the celebrities mentioned in the video have visited Ukraine, AAP FactCheck found no evidence USAID funded their trips by searching on usaspending.gov, an official dataset compiling federal funding information.
Actor Sean Penn visited Ukraine seven times since the invasion in February 2022 to film a documentary, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Angelina Jolie visited the city of Lviv in May 2022, NPR reported, and Ben Stiller met Zelenskiy in June 2022 while visiting as an ambassador of the UN's refugee agency, a UNHCR Instagram post shows.
Jean Claude Van Damme went to Ukraine in December 2022 and shared footage of the trip on his YouTube channel, while Orlando Bloom visited as an ambassador of UNICEF in March 2023.
Mr Stiller issued a statement confirming that his trip was not funded by taxpayers.
"These are lies coming from Russian media," he said in a post on X.
"I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind."
The UN refugee agency also confirmed in a February 6 statement that Mr Stiller "is not compensated for his work with UNHCR and self-funds his travel."
The clip shares similarities to other fake videos impersonating news outlets which have been linked to a Russian disinformation campaign.
Before spreading on social media, the claim was also made in Russian Telegram channels and in articles published on Pravda and Tsargrad, pro-Kremlin media sites.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
