Hard Wire

White House Announces Payments That DOGE Has Canceled

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Alright, folks, buckle up, because this one’s a doozy. The White House just confirmed something that a lot of people suspected but couldn’t quite prove—Politico, the supposedly independent, hard-hitting political news outlet, has been raking in millions from the U.S. government. And guess what? That taxpayer-funded gravy train is about to come to a screeching halt.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made it official on Wednesday, revealing that Politico has received more than $8 million in government money in recent years, including $44,000 from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). But now, under President Donald Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—which, in an absolutely poetic twist, is run by none other than Elon Musk—those funds are getting cut off.

Leavitt made it crystal clear: "The more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to, essentially, subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayer’s dime, will no longer be happening." And just like that, the DOGE team is moving to cancel those payments.

Now, this bombshell came on the heels of some very suspicious developments over at Politico. Earlier this week, employees at the outlet started panicking when their paychecks didn’t hit their accounts on time. Normally, Politico staffers receive their bi-weekly direct deposits every other Tuesday, but this time, nothing showed up. For hours, there was radio silence from management—until finally, around 9 a.m., a memo went out blaming a "technical error."

Now, let’s just pause here for a second. You mean to tell me that a major political news organization that’s been taking in millions of dollars from government agencies just happens to have a payroll glitch right as the White House announces they’re cutting off Politico’s secret government funding? Yeah, sure. Totally a coincidence.

An employee who spoke with Fox News Digital described the chaos behind the scenes. Staffers were furious, some worried about overdraft fees and late bill payments, while others were asking the big question: Was this about the government’s spending crackdown?

To make matters worse, Musk himself chimed in on X, responding to reports that the Department of Health and Human Services had spent half a million dollars on Politico subscriptions with a simple, but ominous, "This is odd."

And just like that, Politico staffers shifted from being mad about their paychecks to being terrified of Musk’s post. Because if there’s one thing we know about Musk, it’s that he loves exposing bloated spending and backroom deals—and now he’s got the full weight of DOGE behind him.

So, where exactly did all this government money come from? Turns out, USAID’s payments were just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s the breakdown of what Politico has been pulling in from various federal agencies, according to USAspending.gov:

  • $1.37 million from the Department of Health and Human Services
  • $1.35 million from the Department of the Interior
  • $1.29 million from the Department of Energy
  • $552,024 from the Department of Agriculture
  • $485,572 from the Department of Commerce

So, while Politico’s defenders might try to brush this off as the government paying for a high-priced subscription service, let’s be real here. The numbers exploded under the Biden administration, and now, under Trump, the spigot is being turned off.

Politico’s official response? They insist the payroll issue was just a simple "technical error" and that everyone was paid within a few hours. But strangely, they have not responded to direct questions about whether Musk’s spending crackdown had anything to do with it.

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