Actor Ben Stiller shot down claims spreading on social media that he had received money from the beleaguered U.S. Agency for International Development and blamed Russian media.
USAID has been under intense scrutiny after Elon Musk accused the organization of funneling taxpayer money to anti-American projects and shut it down in order to audit its budget. Democrats have angrily denounced the effort as illegal and promised to take action against Musk.
‘There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind.’
Stiller addressed the accusations made on social media that he and other celebrities had been paid by USAID to advocate for Ukraine in the country’s war against the Russian invasion.
Musk was tasked by President Donald Trump to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse by the federal government. Democrats have accused him of acting unconstitutionally by undermining departments instituted by congressional legislation.
“These are lies coming from Russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind,” said Stiller on his official social media account.
“100% false,” he added.
The video posted on social media claimed $20 million was paid to Angelina Jolie, $5 million to Sean Penn, and $4 million to Ben Stiller. A community note on the tweet also contradicted the claims made.
“The original source of the claim in the post is … a Russian site which in context of the war in Ukraine, should be considered unreliable,” the community note on X said.
Despite the note, one iteration of the video had garnered nearly a million views, and the false news was spread with screenshots from the video.
Russia’s war on Ukraine is entering its third year. Trump had said that he would end the war on day one of his presidency, but the war has sadly raged on.
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