It was really only a matter of time.
Less than 48 hours after MAGA provocateurs peddled the bogus claim that Politico is heavily subsidized by funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, President Donald Trump raged on Truth Social that this was the “BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL.”
He would then double down on his social media attack later in the day during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, calling it a “terrible thing that was experienced” and claiming the political news outlet “can’t believe they are getting caught.”
The truth of the matter, though, is that multiple government agencies and departments had subscribed to Politico Pro, the outlet’s premium subscription service – and only a tiny amount of the government’s overall spending on subscriptions came from USAID.
During a slew of early morning social media rants on Thursday, Trump blared in a typo-filled all-caps post that USAID had directed massive amounts of funds to Politico and other press organizations to get favorable coverage, wondering if there were other outlets he needed to investigate.
“LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN 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. “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!”
While speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast later in the morning, Trump went off-script to further rage about the supposed scandal.
“Did you see what happened yesterday where they found hundreds of millions of dollars of money was fraudulently given to newspapers and, I guess, Politico,” he declared. “I don’t know if they’re here. I hope you are enjoying your breakfast. They gave money to all this out of USAID.”
Trump continued: “It came out hundreds of just tremendous amounts of money that had nothing to do with anything. This is a terrible thing that was experienced, but we are catching them left and right. We’re catching them. We are catching them to a point where they don’t know what the heck is going on. They can’t believe they are getting caught. I have great respect for the people that are doing it. Elon Musk is helping us on it.”
The president’s conspiratorial tirade came the morning after his press secretary lent credence to the baseless theory — which had percolated on Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) — during a White House briefing.
“I was made aware of the funding of USAID to media outlets, including Politico,” Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday. “And 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.”
She also insisted that “special government employee” Musk and his team of young engineers — who have essentially shut down USAID — would shut off additional funds to Politico.
“The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now,” Leavitt added. “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.”
This particular claim, which is now being used by the Trump administration to further undermine the mainstream media, sprouted up on Tuesday after it was reported that a “technical error” had resulted in Politico employees not receiving their last paychecks.
Kyle Becker, a former Fox News producer who now runs his own right-wing media site, kicked off the narrative by suggesting that the freezing of foreign aid from USAID had led to the payroll issues at Politico. “Fun Fact: @Politico received USAID funds,” Becker tweeted. “Everything makes sense now.”
Linking to a USASpending.gov page showing Politico LLC had received $8.2 million in federal funds across 237 transactions, Becker added: “The ‘technical error’ was reportedly resolved. The error of sending U.S. taxpayer money to a biased, partisan, establishment publication, however, is being fixed.”
It didn’t take long for other far-right media personalities to jump on board and amplify the erroneous assertion that Politico was being secretly bankrolled by USAID. Conservative radio host and former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch demanded “protests outside of Politico’s offices” and investigations of “every news agency.” MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson, meanwhile, called it “the biggest scandal in news media history” and directly tied the funding to Politico’s payroll issue.
“No employee at Politico got paid yesterday. First time ever the company missed a pay period. This is a crisis,” he added. “Now we learn Politico — a ‘news company’ — which spent the last 10 years trying to destroy the MAGA Movement was being massively funded by USAID.”
Ironically, as Washington Post media reporter Will Sommer noted, Johnson himself had allegedly been “secretly and illegally paid millions of dollars by the Russian government,” though the serial plagiarist has claimed that he had no idea the money had been funneled in from the Kremlin. Also, incidentally, Johnson and Becker previously worked together at the conservative news outlet Independent Journal Review, where they were suspended and demoted for publishing a false conspiracy theory about Barack Obama and a federal judge.
Unsurprisingly, the Politico funding narrative made its way to the DOGE chief himself, who tweeted that the payments were a “a huge waste of taxpayer money!” Additionally, Becker and others tied the Associated Press into the panic over government agencies paying media outlets for subscriptions and syndication deals, claiming the “AP’s bias also makes perfect sense.”
However, as The Dispatch reported on Wednesday, Politico did not receive “substantial funds” from USAID, and the money it has received from the federal government over the years is due primarily to subscriptions for specialty paywalled products it provides at a premium cost.
“Becker and Johnson’s claims are false. The only payments received by Politico LLC from USAID were for two subscriptions to E&E—an energy and environment publication it produces—totaling $44,000 over two years,” the outlet stated.
“In September 2023, a staff assistant for the Center for Environment, Energy, and Infrastructure—part of USAID’s Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation—purchased a subscription to E&E for $20,000,” the Dispatch added. “According to E&E, prices for its professional subscription packages typically start in the upper four-figure range and vary based on how many users have access to a subscription. Another subscription to E&E was purchased in September 2024 for $24,000 by the Center for Climate Positive Development—an office within USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.”
Regardless, conservative lawmakers have already taken to the floors of Congress and falsely claimed that Politico is laying off employees because secret funds from USAID have been cut off. “They can no longer sustain themselves,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) exclaimed in a House Oversight hearing. Yet, while Boebert raged about Politico supposedly being propped up by USAID, her office recently paid the outlet $7,150 for a yearlong subscription to its premium products.
In a memo to staff on Wednesday, Politico’s leaders Goli Sheikholeslami and John Harris denied that the outlet had received any funding grants from the federal government, adding that the government’s subscriptions showed the value of the outlet’s journalism. “POLITICO has never been a beneficiary of government programs or subsidies — not one cent, ever, in 18 years,” the memo noted.
“It licenses AP’s nonpartisan journalism, just like thousands of news outlets and customers around the world,” the AP said in a statement. “It’s quite common for governments to have contracts with news organizations for their content.”
