Following President Donald Trump’s executive action to freeze funding disbursed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), social media users took it upon themselves to identify potential wasteful spending the federal agency was doling out.
Some users have claimed falsely that USAID gave Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, $84 million. That figure actually represents the annual gross receipts—total revenue not including expenses—for the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, commonly referred to as the Clinton Foundation.
“How are the liberals going to explain how Chelsea Clinton became a multi millionaire of american tax dollars?” a right-wing podcaster, Alan Jacoby, tweeted. “Chelsea Clinton raked in $84 million. That’s your USAID.” Jeff Dye, a comedian who has made appearances on reality television shows, made similar accusations on X. “Chelsea Clinton gets 84 million dollars of our tax money and she can barely account for any of it.” He added, “We have documented and published proof.” Another X user suggested that legal action be taken against Democrats, tweeting, “Chelsea Clinton got $84M from USAID. But there are still Americans living in tents in the snow in North Carolina.” She added, “Democrats made sure of both. Prosecutions better be coming.”
While the Clinton Foundation has received federal funding in the past, the amounts are far smaller than the social media posts claim. The federal government website USAspending.gov, which tracks federal spending data from October 2007 to September 2024, shows that the Clinton Foundation in April 2010 received a grant for $49,998 from the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent U.S. government agency since renamed AmeriCorps.
The Clinton Foundation also received in September 2019 a $300,000 subaward—an amount not pocketed or spent by the nonprofit but which the foundation was legally required to dole out to other organizations—from the Department of Health and Human Services for opioid substance abuse training.
Some USAID dollars were granted to a nonprofit organization formed by the Clinton Foundation, but nowhere near the amount internet users claim Chelsea Clinton took from the federal agency. The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a project launched by the Clinton Foundation that in 2010 became a separate, affiliated nonprofit group, spent just over $6 million in taxpayer funds from a $7.5 million USAID grant from March 2019 to February 2021 for “foreign assistance overseas.” Specifically, the listed objective of the grant money was “to increase access to cost effective, quality basic health services at community level and in health posts across eight provinces of Zambia.”
The “$84 million” figure appears to come from the Clinton Foundation’s gross receipt amount listed on the organization’s most recent filed tax return. According to the Internal Revenue Service’s Business Master File, which was last updated on February 10 and tracks publicly reported financial information of nonprofit groups, the Clinton Foundation recorded $83,624,489 in annual gross receipts, which does not account for any incurred expenses, and encompasses all of the foundation’s donations and other income for the filing period. That form is not available online, but the Clinton Foundation’s most recent publicly available Form 990 tax return is from 2022, which shows total revenue and expenses adding up to $81,934,441 for that year.
