The Trump administration has come under scrutiny after reports surfaced that the U.S. State Department has been sending millions of dollars to the Taliban.
The department reportedly sent $45 million to the Taliban in Afghanistan on Monday.
The news first appeared in a post by Amrullah Saleh, chair of the anti-Taliban Afghanistan Green Trend organization, based in Kabul, who said the cash arrived in the city on a chartered flight and had been “freshly printed.”
Highlights
- The U.S. State Department reportedly sent $45 million in freshly printed cash to the Taliban in Kabul on December 8, 2025.
- Amrullah Saleh, anti-Taliban leader, claimed the money arrived on a chartered flight by Moalem Airlines, sparking controversy and backlash.
- Fact-checks showed no direct U.S. handover in 2025; the image used to support claims was from a 2023 UN shipment.
The head of an anti-Taliban organization claimed that the U.S. sent $45 million in cash to the Taliban on Monday
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
However, organizations have fact-checked and clarified that the image used for the X post was from a 2023 UN humanitarian shipment, with no evidence of a direct U.S. handover in 2025.
The claim received immense backlash from Republicans. Robert J. O’Neil, a veteran, wrote on X on Monday, “As a taxpayer and a dude who fought and killed this nation’s enemies, quick question: Why THE F*** did we give the Taliban $45 million in cash today? Seriously. Anyone have an answer?”
“The Trump admin just flew $45M IN CASH to the Taliban. Afghanistan isn’t in our NatSec strategy. This is not America First. This is America deceived,” said Ann Vandersteel, a right-leaning independent journalist, on X.
Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett claimed the State Department sent more than $5 billion to Afghanistan in recent years. In 2021, Burchett introduced a bill aimed at stopping tax dollars from being given to the Taliban after it regained control of Afghanistan.
In a press release dated December 4, Burchett said, “Some NGOs are continuing to rip off the American people and our hard-earned tax dollars. I hope that President Trump can clean this mess up.”
President Donald Trump blamed former President Joe Biden for the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, arguing that Biden rushed the process and allowed the Taliban to seize control of the country.
After the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Congress approved funding for international organizations and nongovernmental groups to provide humanitarian aid to Afghans. But watchdogs have long warned that the Taliban may be diverting some of that assistance.
John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, told the House Oversight Committee in 2023 that he could not assure members on the bench that their tax dollars were not funding the Taliban.
Two years ago, the U.S. State Department said it had stopped sending money following the 2021 withdrawal, and insisted that the federal government was not funding the Taliban.
Burchett argued earlier this year that the Taliban had charged taxes and diverted the money, but the U.S. continued to send funds.
Image credits: Alex Wong/Getty Images
The latest claim of a $45 million cash delivery has reignited questions about who ultimately controls foreign assistance inside the country.
The head of a U.S. government oversight office, who monitors how U.S. tax dollars are spent in Afghanistan, told lawmakers in 2023 that his staff “simply do not know” the extent to which American people may be funding the Taliban against their knowledge.
“Since the Taliban takeover, the U.S. government has sought to continue supporting the Afghan people without providing benefits for the Taliban regime,” Sopko said in a 2023 testimony to the U.S. House Committee.
“However, it is clear from our work that the Taliban is using various methods to divert U.S. aid dollars.”
Talking about poverty and the economic crisis in Afghanistan, he said that despite the U.S.’s $8 billion in aid, including $2 billion in humanitarian aid, “little changed from before the withdrawal.”
Reports revealed that aid to Afghanistan often ends up funding the Taliban
Image credits: Majid/Getty Images
They said Taliban officials demanded services from the NGOs. “Once a Taliban governor told one of our subcontracted aid agencies that 15% of the aid must go toward his guards and other Taliban personnel, and it is now a norm to serve the Taliban first and then serve the ordinary civilians,” an aid worker for UNHCR told CBS News.
Another aid worker, Hamid Khan, who works with a local NGO subcontracted by the UN’s World Food Program, told CBS News that Taliban interference had made it increasingly difficult for them to independently determine who to help.
Khan said the NGO aims to help “people who need the aid the most, such as pregnant women, orphans, widows, and other highly in need people, but the Taliban also make their own list of selected people.”
He added that if they did not meet the Taliban’s demands, they “would be banned from working and dozens of excuses will be made preventing the NGO from working altogether, and the others will also not receive their much-needed aid.” This sentiment was echoed by aid workers of other organizations as well.
In addition, one worker even said they were forced to “hire at least 70% of local staff [based] on the wish and will of Taliban members.”
If they did not do so, they were barred from operating, the anonymous staff member of a local NGO said.
Image credits: Nava Jamshidi/Getty Images
“We have about 50 employees in each province, and roughly 35 of them are their [the Taliban’s] preferred locals, who agreed to share their salaries with the Taliban's members. We are forced to hire them.”
He added that the Taliban’s “cruel” demands made it harder for the NGO to do its work. “The ones who need the aid do not get the aid, as it is diverted to the families of Taliban members.”
Afghanistan has spiraled into an economic and humanitarian crisis since the U.S. withdrew in 2021. Almost the entire population is at risk of poverty, and 91% of an average household’s income is spent on food.
Some 24.4 million estimated Afghans require humanitarian support.