The U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement made nationwide headlines after President Donald Trump’s administration illegally gutted it. And now, right-wing nuts, together with Trump, are peddling the bogus declare that the company gave appreciable funds to Politico, LLC, which oversees the information outlet Politico and different publications.
“LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN [stolen] AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES, MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A ‘PAYOFF’ FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS,” the president wrote to Fact Social on Thursday morning. “THE LEFT WING ‘RAG,’ KNOWN AS ‘POLITICO,’ SEEMS TO HAVE RECEIVED $8,000,000. Did the New York Times receive money??? Who else did??? THIS COULD BE THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL, PERHAPS THE BIGGEST IN HISTORY! THE DEMOCRATS CAN’T HIDE FROM THIS ONE. TOO BIG, TOO DIRTY!”
In fact, none of what Trump mentioned is true. The funds he and different Republicans are referring to largely symbolize the cash the whole federal authorities spent on Politico Professional subscriptions, totaling $8.2 million between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025, in line with USAspending.gov, a government-run supply for federal expenditure information.
Moreover, solely a tiny fraction of that spending on subscriptions got here from USAID: $44,000 through the fiscal years 2023 and 2024. That’s negligible in contrast with what different companies spent. The largest spenders have been the Division of Well being and Human Providers ($1.37 million), the Division of the Inside ($1.35 million), and the Division of Vitality ($1.29 million).
But it surely’s not simply federal companies that pay for Politico—Republican lawmakers additionally do.
The Washington Submit found that 38 Home Republicans spent greater than $300,000 on Politico subscriptions within the first three quarters of 2024, whereas GOP-led committees devoted about $500,000 to Politico subscriptions throughout the identical timeframe.
Even the workplace of Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who just lately criticized Politico on social media, subscribes, in line with a reporter for Purpose journal, who cited a disbursements report from the Home.
Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped right-wing conspiracy theorists from falsely claiming that Politico is funded solely by USAID and is “state-sponsored media.” Simply on Wednesday, White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt introduced throughout a press convention that the federal authorities would cancel their subscriptions to Politico Professional.
“I can confirm that the more than eight million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayer’s dime will no longer be happening,” Leavitt mentioned. “The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now.”
Unsurprisingly, the chief of DOGE, billionaire Elon Musk, additionally provided his two cents on social media, saying that the cash spent on Politico subscriptions was “not an efficient use of taxpayer funds.”
“This wasteful expenditure will be deleted,” he mentioned.
The fitting’s Politico conspiracy is laughable and despicable, particularly on condition that the federal government spends trillions yearly. The truth that Trump’s administration is hellbent on slashing federal companies’ comparatively small media budgets speaks volumes about how significantly Republicans will goal the press over the subsequent 4 years.
Politico isn’t the one media group the federal authorities has spent cash on, both. Data present the federal government has additionally made funds to the Related Press, Reuters, Axios, and The New York Instances, amongst others. However as a result of Politico presents sure paywalled merchandise which might be costlier than its friends’ merchandise, it’s catching hearth.
The assaults towards Politico started on Tuesday after it was introduced that the outlet had missed payroll. Although the problem was shortly resolved, this led some conservative information shops to invest that the missed funds have been associated to the Trump administration’s pledge to destroy USAID.
From there, it didn’t take lengthy earlier than far-right media personalities, together with Charlie Kirk and Dana Loesch, started to amplify the false allegation that Politico was secretly being bankrolled by USAID. Loesch went so far as to name for “protests outside of Politico’s offices” and investigations into “[e]very news agency.”
In a memo to workers, Politico’s leaders, Goli Sheikholeslami and John Harris, denied that the outlet was ever “a beneficiary of government programs or subsidies” within the 18 years of its existence.
“[N]ot one cent, ever,” they mentioned.
