As Matt covered earlier, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) drama has gotten worse, given that POLITICO and other legacy media outlets benefited to the tunes of millions. During Wednesday's White House press briefing, the same day such a revelation was made, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the matter, with a clear message about such subsidies, which is that they will come to an end.
During the briefing, a reporter asked about how "a couple of media outlets have been dragged into this conversation," wanting to know if President Donald Trump had any comment, using a rather curious word to describe outlets that have benefitted from USAID. Leavitt revealed that she was actually made aware of how media outlets were benefiting from such funding upon coming out to the briefing room, "including POLITICO, which I know has a seat in this room."
"I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have essentially gone to subsidizing subscriptions to POLITICO on the American taxpayer's dime will no longer be happening. The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now," she continued.
For all of the lamentations from Democrats and the media about USAID, Leavitt brought it back to how this is about protecting the taxpayers, an issue that the Trump administration is quite passionate about.
"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--are making decisions across the board on do these receipts serve the interests of the American people? Is this a good use of the American taxpayer's money? If it is not, that funding will no longer be sent abroad, and American taxpayers will see significant savings because of that effort," she reminded.
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.@PressSec on Legacy Media outlets receiving funding from USAID:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 5, 2025
"The more than 8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to @politico... will no longer be happening. The @DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now." pic.twitter.com/wjvSWWr1kA
Leavitt issued even more key reminders at the end of the day's briefing about taxpayer funding, including and especially when it comes to theatrics from Democrats "who are out there pretending to be outraged about the long list of crap that this administration is cutting," as she went on to list just a few examples. Further, Democrats have been "very quiet" on the plight of Americans in North Carolina still suffering from last year's Hurricane Helene and from the fires in California from last month, Leavitt reminded, pointing out how, "in the last four years, this federal government did nothing to help them," though "this president will continue to put Americans first."
Also on Wednesday, Mia provided an in-depth analysis of some of the projects and initiatives where USAID dollars were going, including but not limited to terrorists.
.@PressSec closes out Wednesday's White House press briefing with a MIC DROP 🔥:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 5, 2025
"Democrats are outraged that the American people want their taxpayer dollars going to good uses, not stuff like this, but then they're very quiet about the fact that there are still North… pic.twitter.com/txsYUlU6QJ
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