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The Trump administration ordered the cancellation of General Services Administration (GSA) media subscriptions on Thursday after shocking findings by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOG) concerning millions of taxpayer dollars received by mainstream media outlets.
The order came shortly after DOGE reported that Politico received $8.1 million in one year from government subscription services.
“Pull all contracts for Politico, BBC, E&E (Politico sub) and Bloomberg,” the email read, according to Axios. “Pull all media contracts for just GSA – cancel every single media contract today for GSA only.”
Politico released a statement on Thursday in response, noting that it did not receive government subsidies but instead provided paid subscription services to government agencies.
“POLITICO is a privately owned company. We have never received any government funding — no subsidies, no grants, no handouts. Not one dime, ever, in 18 years,” wrote Politico Media Group CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and Politico Global Editor-In-Chief John Harris.
“POLITICO Pro is different. It is a professional subscription service used by companies, organizations, and, yes, some government agencies,” the statement continued.
In addition to Politico an X account for DOGE posted Wednesday that “Treasury leadership verified that their NYT (New York Times) contracts were cancelled today.”
President Donald Trump addressed the Politico subscriptions in a Thursday post to his Truth Social profile.
“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 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!” he posted in all caps.
The efforts related to Musk’s work with DOGE could continue to other outlets. On Tuesday, Musk suggested defunding National Public Radio (NPR), though no specific plans have yet been announced.
“Defund NPR. It should survive on its own,” Musk wrote Tuesday on X in a popular post that has garnered over 24.7 million views.
