HEAD-ON

Politico Goes Toe to Toe With MAGA Over Money Rumors

The media outlet issued a statement in response to a right-wing conspiracy theory boosted by Elon Musk.

No, Politico did not receive USAID funds.

The political news outlet was forced to issue a clarification in a staff memo on Wednesday after a right-wing conspiracy theory quickly found its way into the White House.

“Politico has never been a beneficiary of government programs or subsidies—not one cent, ever, in 18 years,” CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and Global Editor-in-Chief John Harris told their team, according to a copy of the memo obtained by CNN.

Hours earlier, a conspiracy began floating through right-wing circles after conservative political commentator Kyle Becker erroneously claimed in an X post that Politico received funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which Musk recently shuttered.

Citing data from USASpending.gov, Becker claimed that Politico received $8.1 million from USAID in an apparent bid to justify the aid agency’s shutdown. Becker also accused The Associated Press of “raking in millions of dollars in government money” in a separate post.

AP reporter Byron Tau pointed out that the payments Becker cited were made “because agencies (not just USAID) are buying subscriptions to Politico’s Pro editorial product, not because Politico is getting grants or other federal funding.”

The conspiracies didn’t stop there, however, because Musk amplified Becker’s post.

“This is obviously a huge waste of taxpayer money!” the Department of Government Efficiency chief said in a post on X.

In a Wednesday press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said DOGE was working on canceling the government’s subscriptions to media outlets, stating that taxpayers were “essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico.”

Sheikholeslami and Harris told Politico staff that “the value of Politico subscriptions is validated daily in the marketplace.”

The newsroom leaders said Politico Pro, a professional subscription service that provides “granular, fact-based reporting, real-time intelligence, and tracking tools across key policy areas,” enjoys high re-enlistment rates.

“Our subscribers tell us, time and again, that Politico Pro makes them smarter and helps them do their job more effectively, and efficiently,” they said. “The services, tools, and journalism we supply on the Pro Platform makes all our clients - private sector and public sector alike - better informed and arms them with real-time news and information and reporting they simply cannot get anywhere else.”

The AP said in a statement that the federal government had “long been an AP customer — through both Democratic and Republican administrations," according to CNN.

“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,” it added.

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Julia OrnedoReporter

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