Government staffers instructed not to renew newspaper subscriptions after Trump complained about unfair coverage

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

The White House has instructed federal agencies not to renew subscriptions for the New York Times and the Washington Post, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Days after Donald Trump mused about cancelling White House subscriptions for the two newspapers in a Fox News interview, his administration is now reportedly advising federal agencies to do the same.

“Not renewing subscriptions across all federal agencies will be a significant cost saving – hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars will be saved, the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said in an email on Thursday, the Journal reported.

The White House ended its print subscription this week, according to a Bloomberg reporter.

Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) White House says it’s going to do things and doesn’t always follow through, but NYT and WaPo subscriptions were ended.



Some aides privately expressing regret. But doubt Trump will stop reading either.



WaPo *online* subscription remains.



WH still gets WSJ, Hill, NY Post etc. pic.twitter.com/1H3lzdBtYM

Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in an interview that aired on Monday: “We don’t even want [the New York Times] in the White House any more. We’re going to probably terminate that and the Washington Post. They’re fake.”

The move appears to be yet another instance of White House staffers scrambling to enact a measure Trump publicly floated with seemingly no warning.

Trump has repeatedly attacked the media, labelled reporting as fake news, and said the New York Times and the Washington Post “treat me terribly”.