Elon Musk has claimed that deaths across Africa dropped following the United States‘ major cuts to foreign aid, arguing the funding withdrawal actually reduced instability on the continent rather than worsening it.
The Tesla CEO made the comments on Tuesday while pushing back against critics of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the cost-cutting initiative he has championed that drove steep reductions in US Agency for International Development (USAID) funding.
Data from Refugees International shows US humanitarian funding fell sharply from $14 billion in 2024 to $3.7 billion in 2025, a decline the group called the clearest sign of a broader pullback in global humanitarian support. Separately, the Center for Global Development recorded a roughly 58 per cent drop in USAID spending over the same period.
Health experts have warned the cuts could carry a heavy human cost. A Lancet study from July 2025 projected the reductions could lead to more than 14 million deaths worldwide by 2030, over 4.5 million of them children. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof also cited Center for Global Development projections suggesting more than 1.6 million people could die within a year without continued US-backed HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
Musk, however, cited mortality figures from African countries to argue otherwise. In a post on X, he wrote that African deaths “DECREASED” after USAID funding was cut, claiming the aid had previously been used to “push for violent revolution to install leftist regimes.”
He shared an analysis tracking weekly all-cause deaths in South Africa from January 2023 to May 2026 — spanning the period after USAID/PEPFAR cuts took effect — which showed excess deaths staying near zero and below pre-cut projections. The analysis also referenced a 2019 study questioning whether foreign aid levels have any strong link to life expectancy or mortality improvements in developing countries.
Musk has repeatedly defended the aid cuts as necessary to curb waste, corruption and the use of taxpayer money for political rather than humanitarian ends, insisting that scaling back USAID’s African operations removed what he called a driver of conflict.
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