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Quick Take
Both the Biden and Trump administrations subscribed to Politico and other news services. But President Donald Trump and online posts have misleadingly claimed the media outlets were being funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The payments from USAID and other federal departments or agencies were for subscriptions.
Full Story
The Trump administration’s efforts to reduce spending by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and other government departments has fueled misleading and unsupported claims about the recipients of the assistance, the funding sources and the amounts of federal aid spent, as we’ve written.
Now, claims by President Donald Trump and social media posts have spread misinformation about money spent by the government on media resources, misrepresenting subscriptions to news services as a “payoff” or as “funding” for media outlets. An examination of government spending records shows that media subscription services targeted by Trump also were used and paid for by his administration during his first term in office.
In a Feb. 6 post on X, Trump misleadingly said, “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 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!”
Trump amplified his misleading claims about the government payments to media outlets on his platform Truth Social on Feb. 13, saying, “Why was Politico paid Millions of Dollars for NOTHING.”
Other social media posts have made similar claims. Conservative commentator Benny Johnson said in an Instagram post: “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.” The post received more than 100,000 likes. Another post claimed, “And now we find out the regime was funneling tens of millions of dollars of our money to Politico?”
Rob Smith, who identifies himself as “The OG Black Gay Republican Icon,” posted an Instagram video citing Johnson’s post and claiming, Politico is “COMPLETELY FUNDED BY USAID!”
Rather than being “completely” or “massively funded” by USAID, Politico received two payments specifically through that government agency in 2023 and 2024 totaling $44,000, according to USA Spending, a U.S. government website that tracks federal spending.
Politico did receive more than $8 million in fiscal year 2024 from other federal departments and agencies, USA Spending records show. Whether that amounts to wasteful spending is a matter of opinion, and we take no position on that. The money, however, was to pay for Politico subscriptions and access to Politico Pro, which provides “non-partisan news, real-time intelligence, in-depth analysis, government directories, stakeholder management solutions, policy monitoring tools” and other customized services, according to its website.
In total, the USA Spending database reported 646 transactions between the federal government and Politico since fiscal year 2015. The transactions are classified as contracts, not as grants, loans or direct payments, which are types of government spending categories on the site.
Politico CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris responded to the claims on social media with a statement on Feb. 6, saying, “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. … It is supported by advertising and sponsorships.”
“POLITICO Pro is different,” the statement continued. “It is a professional subscription service used by companies, organizations, and, yes, some government agencies. They subscribe because it makes them better at their jobs — helping them track policy, legislation and regulations in real-time with news, intelligence and a suite of data products.”
The federal government constitutes a small portion of Politico Pro’s subscriber base. In a Feb. 6 interview, Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Politico’s parent company, Axel Springer, told CNN that Politico Pro currently has about 5,000 subscribers, about 6% of whom work in government.
Politico does not report the cost of each Politico Pro subscription. We asked Politico for the range of subscription costs, but did not get a response.
Some transactions listed on USA Spending include the number of subscriptions purchased, allowing us to estimate the cost of single subscriptions. For example, the Federal Trade Commission spent $45,378 to renew 14 annual subscriptions to Politico Pro Plus in October 2024, at a cost of about $3,200 per person for an annual subscription. The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, spent $143,203 in June 2024 to renew 49 annual subscriptions to Politico Pro, at a cost of about $2,900 per person per year.
In recent days, the Trump administration has terminated multiple contracts between the federal government and Politico initiated by the Biden administration. The subscriptions purchased by HHS were terminated on Feb. 5. The New York Times reported on Feb. 6 that the Department of Agriculture canceled its Politico Pro subscriptions, and Fox News reported on Feb. 10 that the Department of Veterans Affairs also canceled its Politico Pro subscriptions.
Payments During Trump’s First Term
Subscriptions to Politico Pro were not unique to the Biden administration. The government also paid for subscriptions in fiscal years 2017 through 2020, when Trump was in office. (The government’s fiscal year is from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, so FY 2017 included nearly four months under the Obama administration.)
According to USA Spending, during Trump’s first term, the federal government agreed to $10.2 million in contract obligations to Politico.
While total spending on Politico by USAID was relatively minuscule under the Biden administration and nonexistent under Trump’s, both presidents’ executive offices agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to Politico during their respective terms. The Executive Office of the President includes the set of offices and agencies that support the agenda of the executive branch, such as the Council of Economic Advisors, the National Security Council and the Office of Management and Budget.
Under the first Trump administration, the Executive Office of the President accrued $880,000 in obligations to Politico. The other government agencies spending the most on Politico subscriptions in fiscal years 2017 through 2020 were HHS, whose obligations to Politico totaled about $3.2 million, followed by the Department of Energy, which spent more than $710,000.
Payments During Biden’s Term
By comparison, total federal obligations to Politico were more than twice as high during President Joe Biden’s administration as compared with Trump’s first administration. In FY 2021 through 2024, the federal government accrued $22.8 million in total financial obligations to Politico. (FY 2021 included nearly four months under the Trump administration.)
HHS also spent the most money among all government departments on Politico during the Biden administration, with obligations totaling $3.5 million in FY 2021 through 2024. The next highest spending agencies during this period were the Department of the Interior ($3.4 million), the Department of Energy ($2.9 million) and the Department of Agriculture ($2 million). The Executive Office of the President’s total obligations reached $1.3 million during the Biden years.
As we said, USAID’s spending on Politico during the Biden administration was small by comparison. In total, the agency purchased $44,000 in subscriptions to E&E News, a subsidiary of Politico focused on energy and environmental issues, in FY 2023 and 2024.
To analyze total federal spending on media organizations during the Biden and first Trump administrations, we collated total financial obligations for transactions reported on USA Spending. To classify the date of each transaction, we used the fiscal year of each transaction’s base action date, defined by USA Spending as “the date the action being reported was issued / signed by the Government or a binding agreement was reached.”
This classification means that contracts initiated under the Trump administration that extended into the beginning of the Biden administration count as spending under the Trump years, and contracts initiated during the Biden administration that continue to the present count as obligations under the Biden years.
We also collated federal spending on the New York Times, Associated Press and Reuters using the same methodology.
In total, the federal government’s obligations to the Times totaled $1.3 million under the Biden administration, as compared with $610,000 under the Trump administration. Obligations to the Associated Press totaled $6.8 million under Biden and $24 million under Trump. Obligations to Reuters totaled $9.7 million under Biden and $1.5 million under Trump.
Subscription Contracts, Not Grants
As opposed to funding or a financial award, the federal government’s payments to Politico under the Trump and Biden administrations constituted a contractual agreement to provide a service in exchange for a subscription fee.
Politico’s statement explains, “Government agencies that subscribe do so through standard public procurement processes — just like any other tool they buy to work smarter and be more efficient. This is not funding. It is a transaction — just as the government buys research, equipment, software and industry reports. Some online voices are deliberately spreading falsehoods. Let’s be clear: POLITICO has no financial dependence on the government and no hidden agenda.”
Similarly, the $2 million in obligations to the New York Times accrued by the federal government since FY 2017 were also contracts in exchange for subscriptions, and not funding. A Feb. 6 statement posted on X by the Times said, “Federal funds received by The Times are payments for subscriptions that government offices and agencies have purchased to better understand the world.” The statement also said, “There are no federal grants made to The Times.”
Associated Press spokesperson Lauren Easton said on Feb. 6 that “the U.S. government 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. It’s quite common for governments to have contracts with news organizations for their content.”
Subscriptions to news media are valuable tools for government employees, Steven Kelman, a professor of public management at Harvard University, told us in an email. “These are ways for government officials to learn more about things going on in the government in general, which helps them do their jobs better,” Kelman said.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Meta to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Meta has no control over our editorial content.
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Sheikholeslami, Goli and John F. Harris. “Note to Our Readers.” Politico. 6 Feb 2025.
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USASpending.gov. Definitive Contract, PIID 29FTC122C0002. Accessed 10 Feb 2025.
USASpending.gov. Purchase Order, PIID 75F40120P00453. Accessed 10 Feb 2025.
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