On Wednesday, Politico and other legacy media tried to expose claims that the newsroom had received millions of dollars from the federal government.
The catalyst for these accusations comes from President Donald Trump's administration and the Bureau of Government Efficiency, which calls for a restructuring of the U.S. International Development Agency.
“It could be the biggest scandal for them all, and perhaps the biggest scandal in history!”
With much attention to recent troubled agencies, the Trump administration highlighted some of its doubtful things Funds Decided. Press Secretary Caroline Leavbit called it a long list of “jewelry” and “waste and abuse.”
between Press briefing Earlier this week, Leavitt listed some of the federally funded initiatives that Doge discovered.
“These are some of the insane priorities that the organization has spent money on,” Leavitt said.
She said the federal government “$1.5 million to advance DEI in the Serbian workplace, $70,000 for production of DEI musicals in Ireland, $47,000 for transgender operas in Colombia, $32,000 for Peruvian trans comic books. “He said.
The federal government's controversial list of costs rattled by the spokesperson's secretary only hurt the surface.
It was revealed on Wednesday that USAID also paid the Politico subscription fee. A search on USaspending.gov confirmed that not only USAID, but all federal agencies have paid more than $8 million to media outlets over the past year.
This led to inaccurately reporting that only USAID had paid millions of dollars in Politico Pro subscription fees. The agency was created Two payments Go to news outlet: $20,000 in 2023, $24,000 in 2024.
During Wednesday Press conference“When I came here in the briefing room, I was made to recognize the funds from USAID to media outlets, including Politico,” Lewitt told reporters.
“We can see that more than $8 million in taxpayer dollars that essentially subsidize a subscription to politics about American taxpayer dimes is no longer happening,” she continued. “The Doge team is currently working on cancelling these payments.”
Trump wrote post True socially, it looks like billions of dollars are being done [stolen] In USAID and other institutions, many of them go to fake news media as “in return” to create a good story about the Democrats. ”
The president said this could be “the biggest scandal for all of them, and perhaps the biggest scandal in history.”
The chaos between USAID-only fundraising and all federal agencies have seized the opportunity to call the $8 million given to Politico a “fake right-wing conspiracy theories.” .
Lead Story We have published a “fact check” article entitled “USAID has not spent more than $8 million on Politico, LLC.” Buried in the work, the outlet admitted that USAID had not paid more than $8 million to Politico, but that other federal agencies had.
CNN Lamed Levitt for “Elevee”[ing] “Fake claims” and “Right-wing conspiracy theory.” Media outlets likewise missed the mark about taxpayer dollars going to the corporate newsroom, reporting that the funds “all federal agencies combined” rather than from USAID.
USAID has revealed that it has paid a subscription fee for Politico. It uncovered a much more important issue. Many federal agencies use millions of taxpayer dollars each year to inherently subsidize the same corporate media outlets that they believe are reporting and responsible.
2021, New York Times Politico reported annual revenues of around $200 million.
According to usaspending.govthe federal government paid more politics $34 million From 2016 to 2025. Politico's Affiliate, Capitol News Company LLC received another $4.5 million From 2011 to 2023.
However, Politico is not unique in this respect. From 2009 to 2025, the Associated Press received it. $37.5 million From the federal government.
Washington Post The government also reported that it used taxpayer funds to pay a subscription to the outlet. However, he pointed out that Politico's subscription fees were “significantly higher than many of his colleagues.”
Blaze News Senior Politics Editor Christopher Bedford It is listed“This is a real view of how swamps work. Of course, it explains everything. But at the end of the day, for over five years, almost $35 million from taxpayers to federal government. If you receive a subscription, you are funded by their 200 news teams by taxpayers at large.”
Politico did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
Politico CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and editor John Harris released a staff memo on Wednesday addressing the claim.
“As certainly, as many people have seen, there was clear debate among staff in the White House and in relation to government efficiency on the subject of government subscriptions in political products and other press agencies.” The joint statement read. .
“It's a great conversation and we welcome it. The value of Politico subscriptions is validated every day in the market. However, some of today's conversations are confused and some people have left a false understanding. You heard from us at some points and it continued.
They say that Politico “is not a beneficiary of government programs and subsidies, not a cent, 18 years,” and that Politico Pro has been a part of clients in both private and public sectors, with granular, fact-based reporting, He said it will provide real-time. Intelligence and tracking tools in key policy areas. ”
The AP issued a statement about outlets receiving federal funds, saying it was “a long-standing client of the AP, through both Democrats and Republican administrations.”
“We license the AP's nonpartisan journalism, as well as thousands of news outlets and customers around the world,” the AP said. “It's very common for the government to contract with the press for content.”
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