Trump jumped on board the false claim that the USAID had been propping up Politico and other media outlets, calling it the ‘biggest scandal of all time.’. It was really only a matter of time. He would then double down on his social media attack later in the day during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, calling it a “terrible thing that was experienced” and claiming the political news outlet “can’t believe they are getting caught.”.
“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 president wrote. “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! THE DEMOCRATS CAN’T HIDE FROM THIS ONE. TOO BIG, TOO DIRTY!”.
While speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast later in the morning, Trump went off-script to further rage about the supposed scandal. “Did you see what happened yesterday where they found hundreds of millions of dollars of money was fraudulently given to newspapers and, I guess, Politico,” he declared. “I don’t know if they’re here. I hope you are enjoying your breakfast. They gave money to all this out of USAID.”.
Trump continued: “It came out hundreds of just tremendous amounts of money that had nothing to do with anything. This is a terrible thing that was experienced, but we are catching them left and right. We’re catching them. We are catching them to a point where they don’t know what the heck is going on. They can’t believe they are getting caught. I have great respect for the people that are doing it. Elon Musk is helping us on it.”.
The president’s conspiratorial tirade came the morning after his press secretary lent credence to the baseless theory — which had percolated on Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) — during a White House briefing. “I was made aware of the funding of USAID to media outlets, including Politico,” Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday. “And I can confirm that the more than eight million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayer's dime will no longer be happening.”.
She also insisted that “special government employee” Musk and his team of young engineers — who have essentially shut down USAID — would shut off additional funds to Politico. “The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now,” Leavitt added. “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.”. “No employee at Politico got paid yesterday. First time ever the company missed a pay period. This is a crisis,” he added. “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.”.
“Becker and Johnson’s claims are false. The only payments received by Politico LLC from USAID were for two subscriptions to E&E—an energy and environment publication it produces—totaling $44,000 over two years,” the outlet stated. “In September 2023, a staff assistant for the Center for Environment, Energy, and Infrastructure—part of USAID’s Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation—purchased a subscription to E&E for $20,000,” the Dispatch added. “According to E&E, prices for its professional subscription packages typically start in the upper four-figure range and vary based on how many users have access to a subscription. Another subscription to E&E was purchased in September 2024 for $24,000 by the Center for Climate Positive Development—an office within USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.”.
