Ben Stiller Denies Elon Musk’s Retweet Claiming USAID Funded the Star’s Trip to Ukraine

Nearly three years after Ben Stiller called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy “my hero” during a humanitarian trip to his country, the actor is refuting claims that his travels were funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

“Totally false. Untrue,” Stiller wrote alongside a video from an account titled “I Meme Therefore I Am” that has been reposted by Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who last October pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties. The clip, which falsely bears the E! News watermark, claims that USAID paid various actors to visit Ukraine and has racked up millions of views since being posted on Wednesday, February 5.

“These are lies coming from Russian media,” Stiller posted on X (formerly Twitter). “I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind.”

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Stiller visited Ukraine back in June 2022 as a Goodwill Ambassador to honor World Refugee Day. In a video posted to his Instagram account at the time, Stiller said, “I’m meeting people who’ve been impacted by the war and hearing how it’s changed their lives. War and violence are devastating people all over the world. Nobody chooses to flee their home. Seeking safety is a right and it needs to be upheld for every person.”

The video from February 5 claims that USAID paid Angelina Jolie $20 million, Sean Pean $5 million, Jean Claude Van Damme (which is misspelt in the footage) $1.5 million, Orlando Bloom $8 million, and Ben Stiller $4 million to complete their respective visits to Ukraine.

Jolie visited Ukraine between April and May 2022 while serving as a special envoy for the UN refugee agency. Penn made the trip multiple times to meet with Zlenskyy while filming a documentary about the war-torn region. Van Damme was seen in Ukraine in December 2022 alongside a fleet of soldiers. And Bloom met the Ukrainian president as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in March 2023.

Community Notes at the bottom of the video states, “Video has been fabricated to appear as though it came from ENews but there is no evidence that ENews ever reported this.” Furthermore, AFP’s FactCheck reporter Bill McCarthy wrote in a post that he reached out to E! and a spokesperson said the video “is not authentic and did not originate from E! News.”

This rumor circulates as Donald Trump makes plans to overhaul USAID, which offers international civilian aid, according to Musk. The billionaire has said the agency will soon be put “into the wood chipper” and is a “criminal organization.” The Democrats say that Trump cannot legally axe a federal agency without first consulting Congress.