Politico's $30 million+ government subscriptions scandal exposes taxpayer dollars flowing into corporate media

On Wednesday, Politico and other legacy media outlets tried to debunk claims that the newsrooms received millions of dollars from the federal government.

The catalyst for these accusations stemmed from President Donald Trump's administration and the Department of Government Efficiency seeking to reorganize the United States Agency for International Development.

'Could be the biggest scandal of them all, perhaps the biggest in history!'

With much attention focused on the troubled government agency in recent days, the Trump administration highlighted some of its questionable funding decisions. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it a long list of "crap" and "waste and abuse."

During a press briefing earlier this week, Leavitt listed some of the initiatives funded by the federal government that the DOGE discovered.

"These are some of the insane priorities that that organization has been spending money on," Leavitt stated.

She noted that the federal government spent "$1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia's workplaces, $70,000 for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru."

The list of the federal government's controversial expenses rattled off by the press secretary only scratched the surface.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that USAID had also paid Politico subscription fees. A search on USASpending.gov confirmed that all federal government agencies — not just USAID — had shelled out more than $8 million over the past year to the media outlet.

This prompted some to inaccurately report that USAID alone had paid millions of dollars in Politico Pro subscription fees. The agency made only two payments to the news outlet: $20,000 in 2023 and $24,000 in 2024.

During a Wednesday press conference, Leavitt told reporters, "Upon coming out here to the briefing room, I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico."

"I can confirm that more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers' dime will no longer be happening," she continued. "The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now."

Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, "Looks like billions of dollars have been [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 noted that this "could be the biggest scandal of them all, perhaps the biggest in history!"

With the mix-up between exclusively USAID funding versus all federal agency funding, left-leaning corporate media outlets seized the opportunity to call the $8 million given to Politico a "false right-wing conspiracy theory."

Lead Stories published a "fact-check" article titled "USAID Did NOT Spend Over $8 Million On Politico, LLC." Buried in the piece, the outlet admitted that while USAID had not paid Politico over $8 million, other federal government agencies had.

CNN slammed Leavitt for "elevat[ing] a "bogus claim" and "right-wing conspiracy theory." The media outlet similarly missed the mark about taxpayer dollars going to the corporate newsroom, reporting that the funds did not come from USAID but "all federal agencies combined."

Revealing that USAID paid for Politico's subscription fees brought to light a far more significant issue: Numerous federal agencies are using millions of taxpayer dollars annually to essentially subsidize the same corporate media outlets that are supposed to report on and hold them accountable.

In 2021, the New York Times reported that Politico's annual revenue was roughly $200 million.

According to USASpending.gov, the federal government paid Politico more than $34 million from fiscal year 2016 through 2025. Politico's affiliate, Capitol News Company LLC, received another $4.5 million from fiscal year 2011 through 2023.

However, Politico is not unique in this regard. From fiscal year 2009 through 2025, the Associated Press received $37.5 million from the federal government.

The Washington Post reported that the government has also used taxpayer funds to pay for subscriptions to its outlet. Yet it noted that Politico's subscription fees "were significantly higher than many of its peers."

Blaze News senior politics editor Christopher Bedford stated, "This is just a real look into how the swamp operates. And all of it, of course, can be explained: 'These are for subscription models; this is just people paying to subscribe.' But at the end of the day, if you're, for over five years, taking almost $35 million in subscriptions from the federal government, from the taxpayer, then you're largely funded. Their 200-person news team … is funded in large part by the taxpayer."

Politico did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Politico CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and editor in chief John Harris released a staff memo on Wednesday addressing the claims.

"As surely many of you saw today, there was a spirited discussion at the White House and among officials connected to the Department of Government Efficiency on the subject of government subscriptions for journalism products, at POLITICO and other news organizations," the joint statement read.

"This is a fine conversation to have, and we welcome it. The value of POLITICO subscriptions is validated daily in the marketplace. Some parts of today's conversation, however, were confusing and left some people with false understandings. For this reason, we want you to hear from us on several points," it continued.

They stated that Politico "has never been a beneficiary of government programs or subsidies — not one cent, ever, in 18 years" and that its Politico Pro "provides both private and public sector clients with granular, fact-based reporting, real-time intelligence, and tracking tools across key policy areas."

The AP issued a statement about the outlet receiving funds from the federal government, noting that it has "long been an AP customer — through both Democratic and Republican administrations."

"It licenses AP's nonpartisan journalism, just like thousands of news outlets and customers around the world," the AP stated. "It's quite common for governments to have contracts with news organizations for their content."

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