Fact Check: Did USAID give Chelsea Clinton a staggering $84M for her work at Clinton Foundation?

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A jaw-dropping claim made the rounds on social media earlier this week that Chelsea Clinton pocketed a staggering $84 million in taxpayer money from USAID.

What people saw was actually a reference to the Clinton Foundation, not Chelsea Clinton personally. And according to government records, USAID has never given more than $7.5 million to any Clinton-affiliated initiative. Plus, tax returns show Chelsea Clinton doesn’t receive a salary from the foundation.

Claim: Chelsea Clinton received $84M from USAID

A series of social media posts on Wednesday, February 5, alleged that Chelsea Clinton — the daughter of former president Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — pocketed $84 million in taxpayer money from USAID.

The claims took off on platforms like X, Facebook, Threads, and Bluesky, often featuring a graphic supposedly showing how money flowed to “Bill Hillary & Chelsea Clinton.”

WorldNetDaily—a right-wing outlet known for conspiracy theories—published a story referencing what seemed to be a now-deleted post from tech billionaire Elon Musk, who reportedly reacted to the false claim with a simple “Wow.” But he appears to have deleted it shortly after.

False: Chelsea Clinton has not received $84M from USAID

The misleading graph apparently came from datarepublican.com, which is known for tracking nonprofit funding using tax identification numbers and federal spending databases like USASpending.gov. However, an IRS search for the employer identification number (EIN) shown on the graphic leads to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation—not Chelsea Clinton herself, according to Snopes.

Publicly available tax returns prove that Chelsea Clinton received zero compensation for her work with the foundation in 2022 (see Page 7 of the tax return). Additionally, ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer tool, which compiles IRS documents, shows that Chelsea Clinton has received no salary from the foundation going back to at least the fiscal year 2013.

Even datarepublican.com’s own database contradicts the claim. The site’s nonprofit tracker explicitly states that Chelsea Clinton receives $0 from all nonprofits where she is listed as an officer (screenshot available as of this writing).

How much money did Clinton Foundation receive from USAID?

According to USASpending.gov—an official database tracking government spending—the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation received no money from USAID between fiscal years 2008 and 2024 (which is basically from October 2007 to September 2024).

Fiscal year 2025 isn’t over yet, but records show the foundation has received nothing from USAID as of February 6, 2025.

A deep dive into USASpending.gov reveals that the only US government financial award the Clinton Foundation ever received was a $49,998 grant in 2010 for AmeriCorps National, a federal community service program. That’s a long way from the supposed $84 million.

In 2022, the Clinton Foundation had about $302 million in net assets. ProPublica also has 2023 tax returns available (which are not yet in the IRS database) showing the organization’s net assets at $293 million.

Which is the only Clinton organization to receive USAID funding?

While the Clinton Foundation itself received no USAID funding, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) — a separate nonprofit — did. CHAI was originally founded by the Clinton Foundation but now operates independently.

Between 2019 and 2021, CHAI is said to have received a $7.49 million grant from USAID and spent about $6 million. However, IRS documents confirm that Chelsea Clinton did not receive any compensation for her role as a board member at CHAI during that period (refer to Page 18 of the 2019 and 2021 tax returns, and Page 17 of the 2020 return).

ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer tool tracks executive salaries at CHAI from fiscal years 2013 to 2024, and Chelsea Clinton appears to have never received compensation from the organization.