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.
