{"id":704613,"date":"2026-08-21T13:04:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T17:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/?p=704613"},"modified":"2026-08-21T13:04:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T17:04:44","slug":"ive-heard-the-refrain-the-u-s-sends-40-million-a-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/?p=704613","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;ve heard the refrain &#8220;the U.S. sends $40 million a month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>to the Taliban&#8221; repeatedly. Never any detail, just the claim.<\/p>\n<p>So, smart me, I asked Claude. Here&#8217;s the response. We are indeed sending millions to Afghanistan monthly &#8211; and guaranteed it is being 100% grifted.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The claim as usually stated \u2014 &#8220;the US government sends $40 million a month directly to the Taliban&#8221; \u2014 isn&#8217;t quite accurate, but there&#8217;s a real underlying fact being distorted. Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s actually happening:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>What&#8217;s real:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>Since the Taliban took over in August 2021, the U.S. has been the largest donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, and that aid has continued at roughly <strong>$40 million per week<\/strong> (not per month) \u2014 so closer to $160 million\/month, not $40 million.<\/li>\n<li>U.S. officials have blocked the central bank from receiving money from a trust fund, and the State Department has said &#8220;the United States does not provide funding to the Taliban.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/united-nations-cash-afghanistan-following-taliban-takeover\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ProPublica<\/a><\/li>\n<li>The State Department has confirmed to SIGAR (the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) that it dispatches roughly $40 million in cash to Afghanistan every 10-14 days, which works out to about $80-120 million a month, delivered into a designated account at a private bank under UN auspices, and per UNAMA, these funds do not flow into the Taliban-controlled central bank. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afintl.com\/en\/202401193295\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Afghanistan International<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.afintl.com\/en\/202401193295\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Afghanistan International<\/a><\/li>\n<li>This money funds UN humanitarian operations (food, health programs, etc.) and passes through vetted NGOs, not the Taliban government directly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Where it gets contested:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>Critics, including AEI&#8217;s Michael Rubin, argue the Taliban still exerts influence over how these funds are ultimately used, since the Taliban controls Afghanistan&#8217;s economy, taxes NGOs, and can pressure aid distribution on the ground. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afintl.com\/en\/202401193295\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Afghanistan International<\/a><\/li>\n<li>SIGAR reported that more than $10 million has been paid to the Taliban in the form of taxes since 2021, which Secretary of State Blinken confirmed in testimony \u2014 a much smaller, indirect amount via taxation on aid operations, not $40M\/week going to the Taliban itself. <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignaffairs.house.gov\/news\/press-releases\/chairman-mast-gop-send-no-tax-dollars-for-taliban-bill-to-house-floor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">house<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Some lawmakers (e.g., Rep. Burchett, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) have characterized the full $40M\/week humanitarian flow as effectively &#8220;going to the Taliban,&#8221; which is disputed by the State Department and by fact-checkers who note the money is meant for and largely used by independent aid organizations, not the Taliban government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Bottom line:<\/strong> The government isn&#8217;t cutting the Taliban a $40M\/month check. It&#8217;s sending roughly $40 million every 1-2 weeks in humanitarian cash assistance through UN channels, officially routed around the Taliban-controlled central bank \u2014 but there&#8217;s legitimate, ongoing debate about how much the Taliban skims or benefits from that aid indirectly through taxation and control of the operating environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>to the Taliban&#8221; repeatedly. Never any detail, just the claim. So, smart me, I asked Claude. Here&#8217;s the response. We are indeed sending millions to Afghanistan monthly &#8211; and guaranteed it is being 100% grifted. &nbsp; &nbsp; The claim as &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/?p=704613\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-704613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=704613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704614,"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704613\/revisions\/704614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=704613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=704613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldtadise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=704613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}