The federal government spent $8.2 million for subscriptions to the political news website Politico last year, an expense that will be eliminated, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.
"I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers' dime will no longer be happening. The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now," Leavitt said during Tuesday's press briefing.
Leavitt added that the DOGE initiative will be going "line by line when it comes to the federal government's books," adding the auditors will ask, "Do these receipts serve the interests of the American people?"
President Donald Trump has already ordered a halt in operations by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and a full review of the agency's books.
Also on Tuesday, it was reported that staff at Politico did not get paid for the most recent pay period. Internet sleuths quickly called the timing, suspicious that it happened the same day the USAID offices were shuttered, and the massive amounts of government money being sent out to NGOs was paused.
National Pulse journalist Chris Tomlison noted that a PoliticoPro subscription costs nearly $10,000 a year.
"@politico should be transparent about how many of these pro subscriptions are government-funded. Given the ludicrous cost, I'm guessing its upwards of 90%. It seems to me the entire program is a stealthy way of acquiring massive government subsidies," Tomlison wrote on X.
Politico blamed the payroll glitch on a "technical error" telling employees: "Due to what we believe to be a technical error, employees did not receive their paychecks as scheduled. We understand the urgency of this matter and sincerely apologize for the inconveniences. Our team is working diligently with our systems vendors and the bank to identify the root cause and implement a solution as quickly as possible."
Washington Post media reporter Will Summer sought to stamp out the possibility that there was a connection with the two stories posting.
"Right-wing media is melting down today over the erroneous idea that Politico is secretly funded by USAID. Here's the backstory," Summer wrote on X.
Summer ended his list by acknowledging that the $8.2 million the U.S. government paid Politico was for PoliticoPro subscriptions.
Newsmax reached out to Politico for comment.