BREAKING: Trump ends ‘every single media contract’ at the GSA

According to Axios, Trump told the General Services Administration to terminate "every single media contract." In an email, the White House wrote two points, "Pull all contracts for Politico, BBC, E&E (Politico sub) and Bloomberg," as well as, "Pull all media contracts for just GSA - cancel every single media contract today for GSA only."

GSA is in charge of managing real estate, technology services, as well as procurement for the federal government. The move comes after it was revealed by Elon Musk and his DOGE team as well as others that there was rampant waste in spending across government agencies. The premium version of Politico, which tracks granular policy in Congress and other areas, had cost the Biden administration over $8 million. Subscriptions had been purchased by many multiple agencies with the even the Department of Agriculture spending some half million dollars on these subscriptions.

In their defense, Politico said that their product was worth the cost. Along with the subscriptions to Politico Pro, DOGE announced that a contract with the New York Times at the Treasury Department was canceled. The New York Times was also receiving paid subscriptions by government agencies, but the sum in total is far less than $1 million.

"Treasury leadership verified that their NYT contracts were cancelled today," DOGE wrote on X. The New York Times responded to the concern of the cost of their subscriptions to the government's bottom line, saying that the federal funds they received were for subscriptions purchased by government officials and that these subscriptions are long-standing, often decades old. Politico is a newer outlet and was bought by a German enterprise in 2021.

The New York Times, via government-paid subscriptions, provides more than one million active duty and retired military members, along with their families, subscriptions to the paper of record. Even so, the amount of money from those subscriptions brings in only a fraction of the Times' total revenue, the outlet noted.

Politico's executives claimed the company as "never been the beneficiary of government programs or subsidies," and added that the "overwhelming majority" of the Pro subscriptions come from outside the government. The statement added Politico has "no financial dependence on the government and no hidden agenda."

One White House official told Axios that DOGE is looking to cut more media subscriptions from the federal government's expenses. "The eye of Sauron is on more than just Politico. It's all the media,” the official said.

The cuts come amid a whirlwind of budget deletions being made across the whole of government. USAID and it's affiliated programs have been cut, with that agency being brought under the auspices of the Department of State. The Department of Government Efficiency has said that they are rooting around inside the Medicaid and Medicare programs to see what fraud and waste they can trim there. Additionally, the Trump adminsitration has said that the Department of Education will be on the chopping block in its entirety. The US, under Trump, has also withdrawn from the World Health Organization.