Less than 24 hours after misleading and false claims about the politics-and-policy focused Politico news outlet started circulating on the social media site X earlier this week, the White House press secretary promised action. By the next day, the White House had directed the federal agency in charge of contracts to "pull" government subscriptions to two Politico services, as well as some other media outlets, according to Axios.

President Trump's first term was marked by hostility toward journalists, and in his second term, right-wing social media influencers are declaring "we are the media now."

Conspiracy theories flourish on X

On Tuesday, Semafor reported that Politico had trouble with its payroll system. Within hours, pro-Trump influencers started speculating and asserting that the payroll issue was related to the recent funding freeze at U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal foreign aid agency.

X users shared screenshots from USASpending.gov, a website that tracks federal contracts, to bolster misleading claims that Politico was getting government subsidies, a framing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated at a press conference on Wednesday.

"I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico, who I know has a seat in this room," Leavitt said. "I can confirm that the more than 8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidize subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers' dime will no...

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