Ben Stiller Denies Fabricated Claims About USAID and His Ukraine Visit

A fabricated video posted on X (formerly Twitter) falsely claimed that USAID, a U.S. government agency responsible for foreign aid, spent millions to send various actors to Ukraine to generate support after Russia's invasion. The video accused USAID of funding actor Ben Stiller's trip to Ukraine as well as Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn and other celebrities.

Stiller refuted the claims in a tweet, stating, "These are lies coming from Russian media," and clarified, "I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind."

The video was shared by several high-profile figures, including Elon Musk, who amplified it to 2.8 million views, and Donald Trump Jr., whose post garnered hundreds of thousands more views. The video was said to be from E! News, but both E! News and AFP FactCheck debunked the claim, with the latter revealing that the video was fabricated.

Despite denials from Stiller, E! News, and fact-checkers, the video continued to circulate, even being shared by former Trump lawyer Sydney Powell, who labeled USAID as "a big slush fund." Stiller countered Powell’s claim with another denial, stating, "Totally false. Untrue."

New: President Trump added to the wild conspiracy by tweeting this from his Truth Social account:

PLEASE STAY ALERT and be careful about the information you consume.