- In December 2025, online users discussed a rumor that, on Dec. 8, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration sent $45 million to the Taliban, the latest in an alleged weekly payment program. For example, Newsweek reported, “Trump admin sending Taliban $45M sparks Republican backlash.”
- This claim, championed by U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., and others, referenced the fact that, since August 2021 — when the Taliban took control over Afghanistan and the final U.S. troops departed the war-torn nation during a chaotic and deadly withdrawal — the United Nations facilitated shipments of U.S. currency, with much of the money donated by the U.S., intended for Afghanistan’s humanitarian and development assistance.
- The funding began during former President Joe Biden’s administration and continued into Trump’s second term, including for example $120 million provided in March 2025 alone — occurring at the same time the Trump administration oversaw its 90-day pause on foreign aid assistance.
- Despite U.N. assurances of safeguards with the cash deliveries, reports published by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction documented some cash from U.N. shipments ended up in the hands of the Taliban-controlled bank, that the Taliban has targeted and extorted money from some recipients of direct cash assistance, and that the U.S. currency shipments provide “indirect benefits” to the Taliban.
- Snopes did not yet locate credible evidence to confirm the specific claim regarding a Dec. 8 shipment of $45 million in cash, nor any documentation regarding U.N.-facilitated flights occurring in the latter months of 2025.
A rumor circulating online in December 2025 claimed that throughout 2025, and specifically on Dec. 8, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration sent $45 million in weekly cash payments to the Taliban — the political and religious faction ruling Afghanistan.
For example, on Dec. 9, Newsweek published an article (archived) with the headline “Trump admin sending Taliban $45M sparks Republican backlash.” The outlet posted (archived) the same story on Reddit’s popular r/politics subreddit, as well as on Facebook (archived) with an image displaying the headline.
(Newsweek/Facebook)
The Newsweek article cited U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., for his campaigning against various funding — including the cash payments — benefiting the Taliban. Burchett sponsored a bill called the “No Tax Dollars For Terrorists Act” that passed the House in June 2025. Newsweek also cited Amrullah Saleh, the former first vice president of Afghanistan and founder of the anti-Taliban Afghanistan Green Trend party.
On Dec. 8, Saleh posted on X (archived) that a chartered flight delivered $45 million in U.S. currency to the Taliban in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. He tagged Burchett, who then created content for his social media pages about the matter. (One of Burchett’s posts included a video that is no longer available on his social media pages, in which he made specific allegations about why his bill had not yet passed the Senate. Saleh also commented about that clip.)
Other users shared the same Newsweek headline and article, or the claim itself, on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), LinkedIn (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived).
In short, this matter pertained to the fact that, since December 2021, the United Nations facilitated shipments of U.S. currency — with much of the money donated by the U.S., among other donors — intended for Afghanistan’s humanitarian and development assistance. The funding began during former President Joe Biden’s administration and continued into Trump’s second term, including for example $120 million provided in March 2025 alone. In separate reports filed during Biden’s and Trump’s administrations, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction noted that the Taliban benefited from the cash payments.
The Newsweek article briefly mentioned the Biden administration’s role in the matter — a detail not appearing in the vast majority of users’ comments under the outlet’s social media posts.
Snopes did not yet locate credible evidence to confirm the specific claim regarding a Dec. 8 shipment of $45 million in cash, nor any documentation regarding U.N.-facilitated flights occurring in the latter months of 2025. A dollar figure similar to the $45 million claim appeared in an August SIGAR report, documenting that in 2022 and 2023, the U.N. flew at least $3.6 billion in U.S. currency to Afghanistan — amounting “to roughly $40 million in cash per week.”
State Department statement, other outreach
We contacted the State Department via email to ask about the $45 million rumor and the U.N.’s history of facilitating payments of U.S. cash to Afghanistan. A spokesperson not identified in the response said:
The Biden administration sent billions of dollars to places where aid diversion to terrorist groups like the Taliban has been well documented. By contrast, President Trump directed the Department to suspend all direct assistance that could reach the hands of the Taliban. The Trump Administration will not allow U.S. taxpayer dollars to be used to enable the Taliban’s heinous behavior. We condemn the United Nations for failing to implement adequate safeguards and for allowing international aid flows that risk falling into the hands of terrorists.
We also emailed SIGAR, the White House, the U.N. and Burchett, and privately messaged Saleh, to ask questions about the cash payments to Afghanistan — a country torn by two decades of war following the Sept. 11 attacks.
In an email to Newsweek, we inquired about why its article failed to mention the U.N. as the facilitator of the payments, as well whether its reporter contacted Saleh, one of the primary sources, for comment. We will update this story if we receive any further information.
Below we outline the U.S. military’s August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, the history of the U.N.’s cash payment flights and the ways the Taliban benefited from the funds:
U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan
On Feb. 29, 2020, Trump’s first administration signed an agreement with the Taliban, committing to withdraw U.S. troops by May 1, 2021 — ending America’s longest war. The agreement included the freeing of 5,000 Taliban soldiers. FactCheck.org reported that, in the months that followed, the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaida terrorists into Taliban leadership.
After taking office in January 2021, Biden’s administration delayed the May 1 withdrawal date to Aug. 31. In mid-August, the Taliban gained control of nearly the entire country, including most major cities.
On Aug. 26, a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. service members and 60 Afghans at the Kabul airport. As the last U.S. military plane departed the airport on Aug. 30, a video showed a chaotic scene as hundreds of people ran alongside the aircraft, including some clinging to the its side as it took off. The BBC cited local reports that at least two people fell to their deaths after the plane took off, and that officials later discovered human remains in the landing gear.
In April 2023, a U.S. government review of the Afghanistan withdrawal — which was not independent and included input from Biden’s administration — blamed Trump for the withdrawal. The Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report in September 2024, largely blaming Biden’s administration for “the failures of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.”
Post-withdrawal cash deliveries to Afghanistan
Between September 2021 and February 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control — an agency operating under the Treasury Department  — published seven general licenses related to assisting post-withdrawal Afghanistan. The agency’s website, referencing four of the general licenses, confirmed humanitarian organizations can “ship cash into Afghanistan for use in delivering humanitarian assistance.”
A January 2024 SIGAR report cited the reasoning behind sending regular cash payments, as opposed to digital transactions, as follows:
The UN anticipates needing to purchase and transport cash into Afghanistan for the foreseeable future because humanitarian operations in Afghanistan will still rely on large amounts of cash until the country improves its banking sector, including implementing measures to counter and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, complying with international banking laws, alleviating ongoing cash shortages, and developing sufficient internal controls and infrastructure to allow for digital transactions.
The U.N. website hosts a fact sheet (archived) about the cash payments, claiming “all cash brought in to Afghanistan is placed in designated U.N. accounts in a private bank for use by the United Nations” and that “none of the cash brought in to Afghanistan is deposited in the Central Bank of Afghanistan nor provided to the Taliban de facto authorities by the U.N.”
In April 2023, John Sopko, then serving as inspector general for Afghanistan, told House Committee on Oversight and Accountability members that “the Taliban is using various methods to divert U.S. aid dollars.” In Sopko’s testimony, he specifically cited his wanting to “ensure safe stewardship of tax dollars.” Days after Trump assumed office for his second term, Reuters reported, citing an anonymous source, that the administration had fired Sopko, among other firings of inspectors general. On LinkedIn, Sopko posted (archived) he had retired.
As ProPublica reported, the authors of the January 2024 SIGAR report found some cash from U.N. shipments ultimately ended up in the hands of a Taliban-controlled bank:
We found that multiple parties are required to secure and control the cash until it reaches its destination at a private bank in Afghanistan.
Lastly, we found some cash that the U.N. purchases and transfers to Afghanistan ultimately end up in the Taliban-controlled central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), through the currency conversion process. Because private Afghan banks and money exchangers typically do not hold large amounts of afghanis (Afghanistan’s national currency), which are needed to purchase goods and services in some parts of the country, the banks and money exchangers often use U.N.-provided U.S. dollars to purchase afghanis from the Taliban-controlled DAB at currency auctions. Consequently, the Taliban have a large supply of U.S. dollars due to DAB exchanging cash for international aid organizations.
A World Bank Group report (archived) said that, in 2022 and 2023, the U.N. facilitated a total of more than $2.9 billion in U.S. currency payments to Afghanistan for the purpose of development and humanitarian assistance. SIGAR reported the U.S. provided roughly $2.6 billion of that total.
How the Taliban benefits from cash payments
A July 2024 SIGAR report highlighted benefits of the cash payments but also said the money — $3.8 billion in U.S. currency provided between December 2021 and January 2024 — aided the Taliban. Unlike the January report, the July report did not specify the amount specifically donated by the U.S.
The report said a reduction or cessation of the U.N.’s U.S. currency cash shipments “would exacerbate Afghanistan’s economic and humanitarian crises,” and listed several ways the Taliban stood to benefit from the shipments:
Taliban policies and attempts at interference complicate the deployment of direct cash assistance. For example, SIGAR found that Taliban attempts to misuse or divert direct cash assistance have led to the suspension of humanitarian activities, and Taliban polices often prevent the aid from reaching women and other vulnerable groups. In addition, under the guise of income taxation, the Taliban have targeted and extorted money from some recipients of direct cash assistance as a way of accessing international assistance.
However, SIGAR found that U.S. agencies and aid organizations have policies and procedures intended to prevent the Taliban from misusing and diverting direct cash assistance. For example, SIGAR has previously reported that the Department of State (State) and USAID maintain vetting processes intended to ensure that direct cash assistance is not provided to prohibited organizations, including the Taliban. Additionally, the UN addresses any purported attempts to misuse or divert direct cash assistance by suspending activities or engaging with the Taliban directly to discuss and investigate any misuse or diversion. Nonetheless, even with these controls in place, it is not possible to eliminate the benefits the Taliban garner from the cash transfers.
Finally, SIGAR found that U.S. currency shipments provide indirect benefits to the Taliban because the operating costs associated with humanitarian programming generate tax revenue and other fees. Additionally, the humanitarian assistance facilitated by the shipments provide indirect benefits to the Taliban by stabilizing and legitimizing them, because the funds allow the Taliban to focus on their priorities and policies instead of providing essential services to the Afghan people. For example, the Taliban take credit for the essential services provided by international donors, including the provision of food and healthcare, which can contribute to Afghans’ perception of the Taliban as a legitimate authority. U.S. currency shipments also risk legitimizing and stabilizing the Taliban by allowing them to reallocate financial resources to other priorities and policies, including to the security ministries responsible for enforcing Taliban policies and disciplining and policing the Afghan population. Moreover, because U.S. currency is difficult to trace and can be used internationally as a means of exchange, the Taliban now have a greater ability to circumvent the controls of the international banking system that are intended to limit the Taliban’s ability to conduct money laundering and fund terrorism.
In August 2025, SIGAR reported: “In 2022 and 2023, the U.N. flew at least $3.6 billion in cash into the country. This amounted to roughly $40 million in cash per week, money intended to fund the work of 19 U.N. entities, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and 49 NGOs.” A footnote said SIGAR had not been able to obtain the amount of money flown into the country for 2024.
The report also noted the U.S. government had ended most of its aid to Afghanistan by April 2025.
The final SIGAR report from December 2025 documented that, after August 2021, the U.S. alone — via U.N.-facilitated shipments — disbursed $3.83 billion in humanitarian and development assistance to Afghanistan, including for example $120 million in disbursements in March 2025. Those March 2025 cash disbursements fell during Trump’s 90-day pause on foreign aid, which began after he assumed office on Jan. 20.
For further reading, we previously reported about the time Trump said he planned to host Taliban leaders at Camp David.
Sources
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