Fact Check: Did USAID pay Hollywood celebs like Angelina Jolie and Ben Stiller to visit Ukraine?

WASHINGTON, DC: A startling allegation made rounds on social media when an online video claimed that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the primary foreign aid organization of the US government, paid Hollywood celebrities, like Angelina Jolie and Ben Stiller, to travel to Ukraine.

However, there is no proof that USAID paid celebrities to travel to Ukraine, and the BBC has further debunked this claim.

The fake footage has been verified by the BBC Verify section as a component of a Russian misinformation effort after it went viral on social media and Elon Musk retweeted it on X (formerly Twitter), per The Hollywood Reporter.

Claim: USAID paid Hollywood celebs like Angelina Jolie and Ben Stiller to visit Ukraine

There has been political outrage over the Trump administration's statement that, as part of a larger effort to cut government bureaucracy, it may shutter the US Agency for International Development and possibly move it under the State Department.

Amidst this, tales of USAID paying famous individuals like Jolie, Sean Pean, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Orlando Bloom, and Stiller to visit Ukraine have gone viral on social media. 

The fake video purported that the news came from "eonline.com," a claim that NBCUniversal, the parent company of E! News, flatly denied.

'I Meme Therefore I Am', a famous conservative account that has previously propagated false information, posted on X on February 5, saying: "Did you know that USAID spent your tax dollars to fund celebrity trips to Ukraine, all to boost Zelensky's popularity among Americans?"

Billionaire Musk, who has been assigned by President Donald Trump to restructure the federal government, re-shared the fake video with his more than 216 million followers on the platform.

The video allegedly showed E! News stating that during Ukraine's conflict with Russia, the US humanitarian agency paid celebrities like Stiller and Jolie millions of dollars to travel to the country and help increase President Volodymyr Zelensky's popularity.

The 36-second clip is a mockup of an E! News video report, with the logo of the entertainment news website used throughout.

According to the phony report, USAID sponsored American celebrity visits to Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion began in an effort "to increase Zelensky's popularity among foreign audiences, particularly in the United States."

The agency allegedly paid $20 million to Jolie, $5 million to Penn, $8 million to Bloom, $4 million to Stiller, and $1.5 million to Van Damme, whose name was also misspelled.

The phony video is set in Washington, DC, during the Trump administration's calls for the dissolution of USAID and its merger with the US Department of State.

Musk's goals as the newly appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have also been the subject of discussion.

False: Neither Angelina Jolie nor Ben Stiller received millions from USAID for Ukraine trip

A representative for the entertainment news channel confirmed that the clip is not a legitimate report, and Ben Stiller has publicly denied the accusations as untrue.

"The video is not authentic and did not originate from E! News," a representative for E! News told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, February 7.

Moreover, several celebrities have denied ever receiving funding from USAID. For instance, Stiller claimed on his X account that he "completely self-funded" his trip to Ukraine, before adding that there was "no funding from USAID."

Stiller traveled to Ukraine as a Goodwill Ambassador in June 2022 in observance of World Refugee Day, per Vanity Fair. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) verified on its website: "Ben Stiller is not compensated for his work with UNHCR and self-funds his travel."

"Ben has been supporting UNHCR since 2016 and has been a Goodwill Ambassador since 2018. We are grateful for Ben’s longstanding support to refugees and forcibly displaced people," they added.

Jolie traveled to Ukraine from April to May 2022 as the UN refugee agency's special envoy. Penn traveled to the war-torn area on several occasions to meet with Zelenskyy for a documentary.

Van Damme was also spotted in Ukraine with a group of soldiers in December 2022. Bloom, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, also met the Ukrainian president in March 2023.

Moreover, Penn’s litigation attorney Mathew Rosengart informed Forbes that the allegations are "completely false," adding that Penn paid for his own vacation and threatened to file a lawsuit if the "defamatory statements continue."

However, the claims that Jolie was compensated for her trips to Ukraine were refuted by the Russian news outlet Russia Today. It claimed that the rumor was based on a single, unreliable viral video.

The news agency added that although celebrities get paid for charitable visits, there is no proof that USAID paid celebrities to travel to Ukraine.