A fabricated video spreading online falsely claims that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) paid Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie, and other actors millions of dollars to travel to Ukraine. The video, originating from a Russian disinformation account on X (formerly Twitter), was amplified by Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. This misinformation campaign, fueled by right-wing influencers and politicians, seeks to discredit USAID and justify its dismantling. The false claims have been widely shared despite being debunked, highlighting the vulnerability of online information ecosystems to manipulation.
The video falsely claiming that the United States Agency for International Development paid Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie and other actors millions of dollars to travel to Ukraine appeared to be a clip fromDemonstrators and Congressional representatives rally against President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk as they disrupt the federal government, including dismantling the US Agency for International Development.
“Given how much time Musk spends on his platform,” Linvill said, “it was probably inevitable that some fabricated Russian message would resonate with him, and this one seemed almost designed to do just that.”X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the spread of misinformation about USAID on the platform, though it has added a note to posts sharing the video about the actors, noting that it is not real.
Even so, the claim shot rapidly across social media, as influencers and politicians with even more followers amplified the idea. Soon the idea spread to the Oval Office, where Trump used his Truth Social account to criticise the government’s news subscriptions – payments that had occurred during his first presidency as well – as “payoffs” for “creating good stories about the Democrats”.
DISINFORMATION USAID RUSSIA ELON MUSK DONALD TRUMP JR
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