Taxpayer Funding for Sex Toy Store That Sparked Right-Wing Outrage on X Took Place During First Trump Term

Taxpayer funding for a sex toy store that sparked outrage among right-wing users on X actually took place during President Donald Trump's first term.

Users became enraged after one conservative influencer shared a screenshot of USASpending.gov, where Americans can view public information about federally issued grants, loans and contracts, which showed that a sex toy store received money from the government.

"Why did our tax dollars go to 'Divas Adult Toy Store'....?" the user tweeted.

This prompted a slew of backlash from conservative users. One user simply commented "ew" while another wrote, "How did this even get approved?"

Conservative internet personality Kyle Becker later commented on the user's findings, praising them for seemingly calling out the government.

"So @X has apparently turned into a non-profit auditing firm," Becker tweeted. "Gotta love it."

However, a deeper look into the USASpending.gov page revealed that the Texas sex toy store received the $14,000 grant during Trump's first term in 2020. The grant was approved in 2020 and received by the store in 2021.

"Just looked this one up," Matt Binder, a reporter for Mashable, wrote on X. "It was a small business grant awarded in 2020 during the first Trump administration."

As Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency aim to reduce government spending, federal funding has come under intense scrutiny from the Trump administration and its supporters.

News outlet Politico became a recent target of this after right-wing influencers spread a conspiracy theory that the outlet had been paid by Democrats to write nicer articles about the party after learning that Politico received money from the government. However, Politico and other outlets clarified that they have never been paid in such a way, and that the money conservatives thought was bribery was actually payments for subscriptions to Politico Pro.

Originally published by Latin Times.