President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Thursday that he has uncovered what he says “could be the biggest scandal of them all, perhaps the biggest in history!” He alleged (in capital letters) that “billions of dollars have been stollen [sic] 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 went on to claim Politico had received $8 million from the federal government, and questioned if The New York Times and other media outlets had also received payments.
What Trump is describing as scandalous state funding of media outlets is in fact the banal business of government agencies paying for subscriptions from those outlets.
Even for a man with a long record of spreading misinformation and disinformation, this ranks up there as one of his most stupefying conspiracy theories to date.What Trump is describing as scandalous state funding of media outlets is in fact the banal business of government agencies paying for subscriptions from those outlets. Not only is this not corrupt, it’s a good thing for a functioning democracy that federal workers stay up to date on the news. The administration’s subsequent decision to cancel all subscriptions to media outlets, billed as a way to make the government more “efficient” and less corrupt, distills the militantly know-nothing attitude of the contemporary American right.
Watching the Politico “scandal” unfold online was at turns hilarious and horrifying. Prominent pro-Trump voices shared the “news” that money from USAID and other government agencies was going toward media outlets and appending them with statements like “everything makes sense now” and “If this is not prima facie corruption, what is it?” They apparently believed that they had discovered the smoking gun proving Democrats were covertly “funding” Politico and other media outlets. Trump and X CEO Elon Musk then turbocharged the smear, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the government had been “subsidizing” Politico “on the American taxpayers’ dime.”
These accusations are nonsense. First of all, “billions” of dollars are not going to these media outlets; in the case of Politico, in 2023 and 2024, USAID paid a total of $44,000 to the media outlet. Furthermore, there is nothing unseemly about subscribing to a newspaper, just as it isn’t scandalous for the government to pay a laptop manufacturer for a laptop.Politico is mostly free, but it has specialized subscriptions under Politico Pro and E&E News that have hefty price tags for institutional subscribers. In exchange for that fee, subscribers get expert briefings and specialized, real-time analysis of legislation, policy and data in specific subject areas. Politico noted in a statement that most of its subscribers are from the private sector. But it’s also important for policymakers and regulators to have high-quality, up-to-date information about the areas for which they are responsible. That makes them better at their job, because a government that is democratic and crafts evidence-based policy should be absorbing as much independent information as possible. This is precisely why Politico Pro has plenty of subscribers in Congress from both parties, including MAGA politicians such as Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
The New York Times also felt obligated to put out a statement to dispel right-wing rumors, and noted that it too has had plenty of subscribers across the federal government during both Democratic and Republican presidencies, and that federal subscriptions make up less than 1/1000th of the company’s annual revenue.
Of course a man who peddles the noxious idea that social media can serve as a replacement for professional media would call newspaper subscriptions for public policy professionals a ‘huge waste of taxpayer money.’
While we can’t trust that many self-appointed online sleuths on X have any idea of what they’re talking about, we can trust that the Trump administration knows exactly what it’s doing with its announcement that it is canceling subscriptions to all media outlets through the General Services Administration. “The eye of Sauron is on more than just Politico,” a White House adviser told Axios. “It’s all the media.” The Trump administration is robbing its own personnel of useful information to own the libs. What matters to them more than informed staffers and decision-makers is winning a broader culture war against the so-called liberal media. The Pentagon is also ousting major media outlets, including NBC News, from their dedicated in-house workspace for journalists who are part of the Pentagon-focused press corps, and rotating in new, mostly right-wing outlets. It also comes as Fox News takes on Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to host a new weekly show and charts a new, unprecedented path in American propaganda.It makes perfect sense that Musk, a right-wing demagogue attempting to radically reshape the federal government, is so keen to stoke the flames here. Of course a man who peddles the noxious idea that social media can serve as a replacement for professional media would call newspaper subscriptions for public policy professionals a “huge waste of taxpayer money.” His informational project revolves around the disintegration of trustworthy information, keeping people in the dark, and exploiting the public’s most base instincts. Meanwhile, in the shadows, Musk and his cronies will do what they can to bend the government to their will.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.