Beginning in early 2025, various iterations of a rumor spread online that Malia Obama, one of former U.S. President Barack Obama's two daughters, received around $2.5 million from the foreign assistance-centric U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Snopes users also repeatedly searched our website for information about the claim.
One example was posted on X in late June 2025 (archived), where a meme that had amassed more than 59,000 views as of this writing stated: "Malia Obama received $2.6 million for 'consulting' from USAID."
(X user @fugustra1)
Other examples of the claim appeared throughout 2025 in February, March, April and May, with some stating that USAID gave her $2.2 million for consulting.
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, we located no evidence of Obama ever talking about this subject. Further, a search of the usafunding.gov website — a free, open-to-the-public database serving as a resource for the tracking of government spending — uncovered no records of USAID designating any grants, contracts or other money to her. The only two records mentioning her name pertained to Secret Service protection for travel in 2016, during the final year of her father's second term in the White House.
The rumor about Obama and USAID originated as satire with the America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) network of Facebook pages and websites. On one of the network's websites, its owner described their content as "parody, satire and tomfoolery." Lead Stories and USA Today also published fact-check articles about this claim.
How the rumor started
On Feb. 9, a manager for the ALLOD Facebook page published a post (archived) containing the aforementioned meme, displaying the text caption: "She received it because they thought nobody would ever find out." The page had a disclaimer reading: "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real."
Then, on Feb. 10, the same page made a second post with the words: "Malia Obama says she deserved every penny of the $2.3 million she got from USAID: 'I provided penpal services for dozens of lonely kids in impoverished countries.' She wrote letters. To 'dozens' of kids. For $2.3 million. She needs to pay that money back."
Users responding to both posts appeared to believe they were real.
Trump and Musk investigating USAID
The fictional story first started spreading as President Donald Trump's second administration — which then included tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, Trump's pick to spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — set its sights on implementing cuts or dismantling USAID.
Snopes has published multiple fact checks regarding false claims made by Trump's White House about the agency. For example, we reported the facts about how White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt falsely claimed that USAID provided $32,000 for a "transgender comic book" in Peru.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.