Less than 24 hours after misleading and false claims about the politics-and-policy focused Politico news outlet started circulating on the social media site X earlier this week, the White House press secretary promised action. By the next day, the White House had directed the federal agency in charge of contracts to "pull" government subscriptions to two Politico services, as well as some other media outlets, according to Axios.
President Trump's first term was marked by hostility toward journalists, and in his second term, right-wing social media influencers are declaring "we are the media now."
Conspiracy theories flourish on X
On Tuesday, Semafor reported that Politico had trouble with its payroll system. Within hours, pro-Trump influencers started speculating and asserting that the payroll issue was related to the recent funding freeze at U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal foreign aid agency.
X users shared screenshots from USASpending.gov, a website that tracks federal contracts, to bolster misleading claims that Politico was getting government subsidies, a framing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated at a press conference on Wednesday.
"I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico, who I know has a seat in this room," Leavitt said. "I can confirm that the more than 8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidize subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers' dime will no longer be happening."
In a statement, Politico said it has not taken "a dime" of subsidies or grants from the federal government. Rather, federal agencies use the procurement process to subscribe to Politico Pro, a service that tracks legislation and other policy minutiae. The service made over $100 million in 2023, which made up over half of the company's revenue that year, according to Vanity Fair.
Across the federal government, subscriptions for Politico services totaled more than $8 million last year, according to USA Spending. USAID paid $24,000 to Politico in 2024 for a subscription to E&E, an energy and environmental news service owned by the company, according to the same site.
USAID gives aid to organizations to do work abroad, including to some foreign media outlets. But the agency does not "give money to any organization to provide news on, in, or about the U.S.," said a former USAID official who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. Spurred by X owner Elon Musk's cost-cutting team, the Trump administration is trying to dismantle the agency.
Subscriptions for information services should not be confused with grants, said Nicole Darnall, an expert in government procurement who teaches at American University.
"The key difference with a grant is that it is an assistance program," said Darnall. "Gaining access to knowledge networks, electronic news, and print media is not — in any way — a form of assistance. Rather, it involves a contractual arrangement for the purchase of the good or service."
President Trump nonetheless leveled unfounded accusations about the media via Truth Social on Thursday morning: "LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN (sic) AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES," he wrote, "MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A 'PAYOFF' FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS."
Soon Politico was not the only media organization in the crosshairs. X users circulated similar screenshots showing government payments to The Associated Press and The New York Times.
"The U.S. government has long been an AP customer — through both Democratic and Republican administrations," AP spokesperson Lauren Easton told NPR in an email. "It's quite common for governments to have contracts with news organizations for their content."
The New York Times said in a similar statement that no federal grants were made to the company.
"Federal funds received by The Times are payments for subscriptions that government offices and agencies have purchased to better understand the world."
What began as a misleading nugget had turned into an anti-media campaign within days.
"At what point do we start pulling the press credentials of journalists?" right-wing influencer Benny Johnson asked in a livestream.
Last year, the Justice Department discovered that Johnson and several other right-wing influencers were indirectly receiving funds through lucrative contracts from operatives of the Russian government. Johnson said he didn't know Russia was the source of the money.
Canceling contracts
Axios reported on Thursday that the White House asked the General Services Administration to "pull" all contracts for Politico, BBC, E&E and Bloomberg, as well as "cancel every single media contract" expensed by the GSA.
Bloomberg and Reuters declined to comment. The BBC has not responded to a request for comment.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture told NPR on Friday in a statement that it had "completed a review of our media contracts and effective February 5 canceled the Politico subscriptions across the Department."
Musk wrote on X, "My guess is that ~20% of legacy media funding is from the government in one form or another," without indicating how he came to that estimate. In a second post he wrote, "And it should be zero."
Musk has voiced support for ending federal funding for public broadcasting, which is used by public media stations to pay for NPR and PBS content.
People working in the federal government need access to specialized information to do their jobs, including to effectively support the private sector, said Chris Mohr, president of the Software Information Industry Association, a trade group that represents subscription-based, business-to-business publications.
"If you are partnering with the sector or trying to promote it," said Mohr, "You need information about the state of play of the industry and the state of play of the relationships of different governments with that industry and the policies they're enacting."
Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters are SIIA members, Mohr said.
"This isn't political. This is really just sort of what's going on. If you don't have that, it can be quite a big blind spot," Mohr said.
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