Bono’s USAID cuts death claim fact-checked by Elon Musk and Joe Rogan
U2 frontman and longtime global activist Bono took a swing at the Trump administration disbanding the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)) on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, blaming the cuts for a staggering 300,000 deaths.
And he was swiftly fact-checked by Rogan and Elon Musk in a takedown that lit up social media.
“This will f— you off,” Bono warned, claiming tens of thousands of tons of food are “rotting” in warehouses from Djibouti to Houston because of recent USAID cuts, and that the people who ran those warehouses have been fired.
“What is that? That’s not America, is it?”
I AM A USAID WHISTLEBLOWER. I’VE GOT TO ADMIT, MUSK IS MOSTLY RIGHT ABOUT AGENCY’S WASTE
Joe Rogan, Bono and Elon Musk are shown in this composite image. Bono recently claimed on “The Joe Rogan Experience” that 300,000 people have died due to USAID cuts, a statement Rogan questioned and Musk later dismissed on social media. (Getty Images)
Rogan wasn’t having it.
“They’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” he said, acknowledging that while some aid groups do good work, the USAID system has been riddled with corruption.
“For sure, it was a money laundering operation. For sure, there was no oversight. … Trillions that are unaccounted for.”
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CUTTING 90% OF USAID FOREIGN AID CONTRACTS, DOCUMENTS SHOW
Singer Bono poses during “Bono: Stories Of Surrender” at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals May 17, in Cannes, France. (Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images)
Reacting on X to a clip of the conversation, Elon Musk slammed Bono directly.
“He’s such a liar/idiot,” Musk wrote.
Musk, who has championed sharp cuts to what he sees as a bloated foreign aid machine, pushed for major USAID reforms under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) before his formal departure this week.
His response ignited debate online, with conservatives cheering for overdue accountability.
Popular online commentator “Catturd” posted that “I agree 100% with Elon Musk that Bono is an idiot and a liar.”
One commentator also wrote, “They’ve made this 300,000 number up and propagandized people with it.”
Another eagle-eyed X user posted, “Bono starts off by saying, ‘It’s not proven.’ So he’s lying.”
Bono’s 300,000 figure comes not from confirmed deaths, but from a speculative model built by Brooke Nichols, a mathematical health modeler at Boston University, projecting what could happen as a result of the cuts.
Bono poses during “Bono: Stories Of Surrender” at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival in France. (Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images)
Nichols has said that the number is a projection, not a direct count, due to the absence of real-time tracking in many affected regions.
“The biggest uncertainties in all of these estimates are: 1) the extent to which countries and organizations have pivoted to mitigate this disaster (likely highly variable),” she wrote in The Washington Post. “And 2) which programs are actually still funded with funding actually flowing — and which aren’t.”
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The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.