WH Will Order Federal Agencies To Cancel Their NYT, WaPo Subscriptions

President Donald Trump speaks to the press after announcing and initial deal with China at the South Lawn of the White House on October 11, 2019.(Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
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Federal agencies are about to hit paywalls.

The White House confirmed to TPM on Thursday that it will order federal agencies to terminate their subscriptions to the New York Times and the Washington Post, after President Trump said he was doing away with the papers at 1700 Pennsylvania Ave.

Press secretary Stephanie Grisham touted the decision as a cost-cutting measure.

“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.

The move was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Spokespeople for the Times and the Post told TPM they did not have a comment.

Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity earlier this week that he plans to cancel the White House’s subscriptions to the two major newspapers.

“They’re fake,” Trump complained.

However, the President did not say at the time that the ban would extend to all federal agencies.

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Notable Replies

  1. “cost-cutting” would save more if drump decided not to go to Mar lago for a weekend.

  2. They can expect to get regular emails from trusted news sources like Infowars.

  3. Maybe he will get sued for eye injuries from all the eye rolling across the government after hearing this news.

  4. Which is the exact equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and saying “Ya ya ya ya ya ya. I can’t HEAR you…”

    Usually performed by someone in the middle of having a breakdown

  5. I doubt Trump can actually do that, since most agencies have departments whose mission is to keep tabs on, and respond to, press coverage of that agency and its area of responsibility – and that is included in the Congressionally approved budgets and appropriations for those agencies.

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