Trump directs agencies to end NYT and Washington Post subscriptions

October 24, 2019

The White House is directing federal agencies to cancel their subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post, two flagship newspapers that consistently break news about and relevant to the president’s administration.

The plan, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday and confirmed by CBS News, was floated by President Trump earlier this week in an interview with Fox News. The Post and the Times are some of his favorite targets to denigrate as “fake news.”

“The media is corrupt. Not all media,” Mr. Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “Look, I know some — some great people, including you, but I know some great journalists. … The New York Times, which is a fake newspaper — we don’t even want it in the White House anymore. We’re going to probably terminate that and The Washington Post. They’re fake.”

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said the decision was driven by money.

“Not renewing subscriptions across all federal agencies will be a significant cost saving for taxpayers — hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she said in a statement.

It’s unclear exactly how much agencies spend on the publications, but The Washington Post is free to anyone with a government or military email address. It’s also unclear whether agencies will follow through with the White House’s order to cancel the subscriptions.