President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have suggested without evidence that officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development may have siphoned off taxpayer money for themselves, echoing false social media claims about the former administrator’s net worth.

The Trump administration — largely through the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — has targeted USAID for closure, and we’ve written about several false or misleading claims from the administration aimed at discrediting the agency or foreign aid.

On Feb. 11, Musk, who has publicly taken on the role of leading DOGE, appeared in the Oval Office with the president to provide updates to the press on the department’s progress.

There, Trump asked Musk, “Could you mention some of the things that your team has found? Some of the crazy numbers, including the woman that walked away with about $30 million?”

“Right,” Musk said, “we do find it rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have, ostensibly, a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars of net worth while they are in that position, which is, you know, what happened at USAID. … I think the reality is that they’re getting wealthy at the taxpayer expense.”

But Musk didn’t provide anything to back up that statement. The White House didn’t respond when we asked which government employees Musk was citing.

He and the president appear to be referring to the former...

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