The Trump administration ordered a critical agency that assists other government departments to cancel all of its media contracts amid outrage over federal tax dollars flowing to news outlets, according to a report.
A White House official made the request to the General Services Administration in an email obtained by Axios Thursday.
“GSA team, please do two things,” the official reportedly wrote. “Pull all contracts for Politico, BBC, E&E (Politico sub) and Bloomberg.
“Pull all media contracts for just GSA – cancel every single media contract today for GSA only,” the email read, according to the report.
The GSA is an independent agency that, among other things, manages federal property for different agencies and helps to ensure government operations are efficient, according to its website.
The reported instructions from the White House were delivered after Elon Musk’s and his Department of Government Efficiency team highlighted millions of dollars in Politico Pro subscriptions that were paid with federal funds.
Politico Pro is a popular service in DC that tracks “policy, legislation and regulations in real time with news, intelligence and a suite of data products,” the company said.
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the Trump administration would stop paying for the subscriptions after the government funneled more than $8 million to the online site.
“The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now,” she said during a press briefing.
“Again, 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, and this president and his team are making decisions across the board.”
President Trump, in a Truth Social post, claimed the money to Politico was a “payoff” so the outlet would write positive stories about Democrats.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene weighed in on the controversy Wednesday, arguing on X that news outlets “that do nothing but bash President Trump and his supporters to push their highly partisan political agenda shouldn’t receive subsidized subscriptions.”
Politico CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and Editor-in-Chief John Harris attempted to set the record straight in a letter to readers.
The pair insisted the publication doesn’t receive any government subsidies.
“It is a transaction — just as the government buys research, equipment, software and industry reports,” they wrote Thursday.
“Some online voices are deliberately spreading falsehoods. Let’s be clear: Politico has no financial dependence on the government and no hidden agenda. We cover politics and policy — that’s our job.”
An email to the White House late Thursday night asking for confirmation of the Axios report was not immediately returned.
