The White House is planning to direct federal agencies to not renew subscriptions to the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Many details, including when and how the plan will be implemented are still unclear, and the White House was still working on the directive Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that the move would save the government a lot of money.
“Not renewing subscriptions across all federal agencies will be a significant cost saving — hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars will be saved,” she said Thursday.
Both of the major national newspapers have been a frequent target of attacks from President Trump, who has referred to the news organizations as “fake news” a number of times. The move seems to expand upon Trump’s decision to cancel White House subscriptions of the newspapers.
Print editions of the Washington Post and New York Times were not among the bevy of newspapers delivered to the White House on Thursday.
Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump said Monday evening that he was planning to cancel the New York Times.
“We don’t even want it in the White House anymore,” Trump said. “We’re going to probably terminate that and the Washington Post. They’re fake.”
Regardless of his public disdain, Trump is reportedly an avid reader of both newspapers, and aides have said they expect him to continue to do so despite the cancellations.
