A viral video claims that Hollywood actors were paid by USAID to visit Ukraine and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “WHY WOULD USAID PAY HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES OUR TAX DOLLARS TO MEET ZELENSKY???” text in the video reads. Below it includes amounts ranging from $1.5 million to $20 million supposedly paid to Jean-Claude Van Damme, Ben Stiller, Sean Penn, Orlando Bloom, and Angelina Jolie.
The claim is false. There is no evidence that USAID paid celebrities to visit Ukraine.
The video’s claims first appeared in another viral video that began circulating online in early February. At the time, BBC Verify, the BBC’s fact-checking unit, identified that video—which falsely identified itself as being produced by E! News—as fake and likely part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The claim, however, was popularized after being shared by Elon Musk.
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Records from usaspending.gov—an official source for departmental spending data—show no payments from USAID to Van Damme, Stiller, Bloom, Jolie, or any of their respective charities. CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), a disaster relief charity started by Sean Penn, has received financial support from USAID in the past, including a $5.4 million grant in January 2024 to support the nonprofit’s humanitarian work in Haiti. However, there is no evidence that the charity received funding in exchange for the actor’s visit to Ukraine in November 2022, and Penn has not individually received any funds from...
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