There's an app for people who've lost track of how many subscriptions. For government, though, that app is DOGE!

BY THE NUMBERS

The dollar figure includes $32.3 million in spending from inside the White House and $11.9 million from staffers in the House of Representatives.

Despite the online buzz, our auditors did not find any evidence of federal grants given to the news outlet. The only direct assistance the government has sent to Politico was a $1,000 Covid-19 relief grant from 2020.

Virtually all of the payments are, in fact, subscription fees!

Donald Trump's White House spent just over $1 million on Politico in 2017, his first year as president. By 2020 subscription payments had increased to $2.8 million.

Then, payments increased dramatically once Joe Biden took office. The White House spent $4.4 million on Politico subscriptions in 2021. Payments reached a high of $7.8 million in 2023 and totaled $7.4 million in 2024.

It seems no one in the federal bureaucracy thought to share their password with their colleagues in other agencies. Thirty-eight different federal agencies and subagencies have sent payments to Politico since 2017.

The Department of Health and Human Services spent more than twice as much as any other federal agency with $6.9 million since 2017. The Department of Energy and Department of the Interior also spent more than $3 million in the same time frame. The Agency for International Development spent $44,000.

One might expect that federal bureaucrats are leading experts on government policy and public affairs, more so than journalists at Politico. That may not be the case.