Karoline Leavitt Delivers Crushing News to Politico During Press Briefing: The Taxpayer ‘Subsidization’ Ends Now
the White house press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, announced that the federal government’s subscriptions to the media outlet Politico are being canceled due to their high costs. The decision comes after findings from the Department of Government Efficiency revealed that agencies, especially the United States Agency for International Growth (USAID), were spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars annually on Politico Pro subscriptions, amounting to over $8 million in total from various government sources between 2016 and 2025. Leavitt confirmed that this funding will be eliminated as part of a broader effort to review government expenditures to ensure they’re serving the interests of American taxpayers. Critics noted that many agencies were paying for these expensive subscriptions, which were often not utilized effectively. The move has been welcomed as a way to cut government spending on media that some perceive as biased.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Wednesday that pricey subscriptions to the leftist media outlet Politico by the federal government are being canceled.
Real America’s Voice host Brian Glenn asked Leavitt to comment on the Department of Government Efficiency’s discovery that the United States Agency for International Development had been one of the agencies paying tens of thousands of dollars per year for Politico Pro subscriptions.
“Upon coming out here to the briefing room, I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico, who I know has a seat in this room,” Leavitt began.
“I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayer’s dime will no longer be happening,” she continued. “The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now.”
🚨 BOOM! @PressSec Karoline Leavitt just announced that @DOGE is cutting all funding to POLITICO and other media outlets funded by USAID. pic.twitter.com/vBt6TDXi56
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 5, 2025
The Dispatch reported that multiple federal agencies and departments paid Politico a total of $8.2 million for subscriptions from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2025. However, the outlet said that USAID had “only” two subscriptions to E&E, an energy and environment publication produced by Politico LLC, totaling $44,000 over a two-year period.
Leavitt went on to note, “Again, this is a whole-of-government effort to ensure that we are going line by line when it comes to the federal government’s books, and this president and his team are making decisions across the board on, do these receipts serve the interest of the American people? Is this a good use of the American taxpayers’ money?”
“If it is not, that funding will no longer be sent abroad and taxpayers will see significant savings because of that effort,” she said.
Just to be clear, Politico was getting funds from all sorts of government agencies for extremely pricey Politico Pro subscriptions.
The State Department was the second largest purchaser pic.twitter.com/A6Q2Z0t2AY
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) February 5, 2025
Sam Lyman, a former speechwriter for then-Senator Orrin Hatch, posted on social media platform X, “When I worked in the Senate, we all had Politico Pro by default. I never signed up for it. So I can only assume it was a blanket deal Politico had worked out w/the federal gov. I never used it—not even once. Got 0 value out of it.”
Lyman added it was “Gobsmacking to hear a subscription=$10k.”
He was commenting on an earlier post by Chris Tomlinson, a reporter with the National Pulse, who wrote that a Politico Pro subscription costs about $10,000 per year. Tomlinson speculated, given the annual fee, that probably 90 percent of the subscriptions are paid for by federal government agencies.
“It seems to me the entire program is a stealthy way of acquiring massive government subsidies,” he wrote.
When I worked in the Senate, we all had Politico Pro by default.
I never signed up for it. So I can only assume it was a blanket deal Politico had worked out w/the federal gov.
I never used it—not even once. Got 0 value out of it.
Gobsmacking to hear a subscription=$10k https://t.co/ZDs4RWq5So
— Sam Lyman (@SamLyman33) February 5, 2025
Sean Davis, CEO and co-founder of the conservative outlet The Federalist, pointed out that Politico was at the forefront of censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 and published the leak information in the 2022 Dobbs decision “that led to the near-assassination of multiple Supreme Court justices.”
So great news from Leavitt that the American taxpayer will no longer be spending millions to subsidize leftist “journalism.”
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