Fact check: USAID paid Politico to smear Gamers. Fuck USAID. I hope it burns to the ground.

1. Summary of the results

The claim about USAID paying Politico to "smear gamers" is demonstrably false based on multiple sources. USAID's actual spending with Politico was limited to $44,000 total, broken down as $24,000 in 2024 and $20,000 in 2023, specifically for E&E News subscriptions ^[1]. These were standard institutional subscriptions to news services, not grants or funding schemes ^[2].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

Several crucial pieces of context are missing from the original statement:

• The $8 million figure that sparked controversy actually represents total government spending across multiple agencies over several years, not a single USAID payment ^[3]
• These subscriptions are for premium policy and regulatory information services, similar to what government agencies purchase from Bloomberg and LexisNexis ^[4]
• The payments were part of standard government procurement processes for news subscriptions ^[5]
• The subscriptions were for Politico's Pro editorial product, which is a specialized news service for government and policy professionals ^[2]

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original statement appears to be part of a broader misinformation campaign:

• The false narrative was deliberately spread by several high-profile figures, including:
• Conservative social media users
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
• President Trump
• Elon Musk ^[3]
• The claims appear to be part of a larger political strategy targeting USAID, with Elon Musk taking a particularly aggressive stance against the agency ^[6]
• White House Press Secretary Leavitt made specifically inaccurate statements about "$8 million in subscriptions" ^[5]

This misinformation campaign represents a deliberate mischaracterization of standard government procurement processes ^[5] and appears to be part of a broader political strategy to undermine USAID's credibility ^[6].