Actor Ben Stiller took to social media Wednesday to refute claims that he used American taxpayer money to fund his trip to Ukraine.
An AI-narrated video shared on X named numerous celebrities who visited Ukraine and were allegedly paid millions to do so by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The report, which was falsely attributed to E! News, claimed Stiller received $4 million from USAID to visit the country in 2022.
The “Zoolander” star was quick to shoot the claim down.
“These are lies coming from Russian media,” Stiller wrote on X. “I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind.”
He added that the claims were “100 percent false.”
These are lies coming from Russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind.
💯 percent false. https://t.co/EFBPmrFQJ6
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) February 5, 2025
It is unclear how Stiller determined the Russian media was behind the video.
He has since disabled general comments on his post.
The report cited numerous other celebrities who allegedly took money from USAID:
- Angelina Jolie — $20 million
- Sean Penn — $5 million
- Jean-Claude Van Damme — $1.5 million
- Orlando Bloom — $8 million
According to the report, the intent in paying the celebrities was to increase the popularity of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
A community note, however, debunked that E! News had published the report.
“This ‘E News’ video is fake. It doesn’t appear on the ‘E News’ website, Instagram account, or X account. Also, the video’s formatting is different from an actual ‘E News’ video,” the community note read. “In the fake video, Jean-Claude Van Damme’s name is spelled incorrectly.”
While it’s unclear if there is any truth to the claims, it is true that all of the celebrities mentioned did visit Ukraine, according to Newsweek and Firstpost.
Politifact reached out to the celebrities listed in the video.
“USAID funding was never used to pay for Sean Penn’s travel to Ukraine; Mr. Penn self-funded his travel,” Penn’s lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, told Politifact.
The remaining celebrities had not yet answered Politifact’s inquiries.
On Friday, a judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to place 2,200 USAID employees on leave, according to Fox News.
“USAID is driving the radical left crazy, and there is nothing they can do about it because the way in which the money has been spent, so much of it fraudulently, is totally unexplainable,” President Donald Trump wrote in all caps on Truth Social.
“The corruption is at levels rarely seen before. Close it down!” Trump wrote Friday.
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