Waste of the Day: POLITICO Got $44M From Government Subscriptions

Topline: The White House subscribes to POLITICO Pro, a premium service meant to inform the public what is happening inside the White House, spending $16 million since 2017, according to a new report from OpenTheBooks.com.

Politico grifts on the government

It’s part of $44.2 million the federal government has paid POLITICO in subscription fees since 2017: $32.3 million from 38 different executive agencies and subagencies, and $11.9 million from offices in the House of Representatives.

Key facts: The Department of Health and Human Services is POLITICO’s best customer on the Hill, with $6.9 million spent on subscriptions since 2017. 

President Donald Trump’s administration spent between $1 million and $3 million on POLITICO subscriptions during each year of his first term. Then, spending increased under President Joe Biden, reaching a high of $7.8 million in 2023.

The premium subscriptions to POLITICO Pro cost nearly $3,000 per person.

The Pro service is meant to help “lobbyist, executive, consultant, researcher, strategist, or analyst” get “the inside scoop on the public policy and players that matter most to you” with “elite access” from POLITICO’s reporters. 

One might expect that having a job inside the actual White House would be a better kind of elite access than anything POLITICO can provide.

The government has not sent any direct assistance to POLITICO, aside from a $1,000 Covid-19 relief grant in 2020.

USAID wasn’t the motherlode (or was it?)

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Background: On Feb. 5, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the more than $8 million the U.S. Agency for International Development has sent to POLITICO would be canceled by the Department of Government Efficiency. There was only one problem: USAID has only spent $44,000 on POLITICO subscriptions, OpenTheBooks found in its review of federal data.

The false claim originated with a social media post on X. It was picked up by online political commentators, and within hours was repeated by Leavitt.

“Upon coming out here to the briefing room, I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets including POLITICO,” Leavitt said in her press briefing. “The more than $8 million in taxpayer dollars that have gone towards essentially subsidizing subscriptions to POLITICO will no longer be happening.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert also falsely claimed during a Congressional oversight hearing that POLITICO is laying off staff because its nonexistent USAID funding was cut, Will Sommer of the Washington Post reported.

Summary: Paywalls and subscription fees are enough of a nuisance in taxpayers’ personal lives without having them funding the White House’s reading material.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

This article was originally published by RCI and made available via RealClearWire.

Editor’s Note

CNAV has treated the Politico story itself, and suspects that Open the Books did not source this story in the wisest way. Fact: Politico missed payroll at the same time as the discoveries about the premium subscriptions. And fact: other media organs tapped into the same till; Politico was not the only one.