Crisis at ‘The Politico’ These are tough times for America’s premier political red top. And we’re not referring to the loss of top talent to the competition. (In this business, that’s par for the course. Politico has a deep bench of veterans and has proved time and again that it’s second to none when it comes to moulding young talent.) The issue is Donald Trump. For whatever reason, the outlet, which started in 2007 in Washington as “The Politico” and in 2015 in Brussels as Politico Europe, has landed squarely in the sights of both Trump and his not-so-trusty sidekick, Elon Musk. Responding to an X-fuelled conspiracy theory that Politico had received subsidies from USAID (which it hasn’t), the Trump administration ordered the US government to cancel all its subscriptions to Politico Pro, the outlet’s policy service. Politico’s sales to the American government total about $8 million from subscriptions. A ‘left-wing rag’? Trump called out Politico on Truth Social in all caps: “THE LEFT WING ‘RAG,’ KNOWN AS ‘POLITICO’, SEEMS TO HAVE RECEIVED $8,000,000.” He added that the ‘revelations’ might be “THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL, PERHAPS THE BIGGEST IN HISTORY!” That message was amplified on X by Musk, whom Trump has tasked with cutting government spending. “This wasteful expenditure will be deleted,” Musk declared. Responding to a broadside against Politico Europe by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Musk said: “The anti-corruption drive is accelerating.” There’s nothing new about Trump and Musk lashing out at the media. The European connection But there’s an important European angle that’s been overlooked. Politico’s parent is Berlin-based Axel Springer, one of Europe’s largest media groups. In addition to Politico, it publishes Germany’s Bild and Die Welt. Springer has tried very hard over the years to court Musk. In 2014, 2016 and 2019, for example, Bild awarded the Tesla founder its coveted “Golden Steering Wheel”, a prize for the best cars of the year, which Musk flew to Berlin to claim. In 2020, the publisher bestowed its highest honour on Musk: the Axel Springer Award (other recipients include Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates). The company transformed the top floor of its Berlin headquarters into what it called “a spaceship”. Springer Chief Executive Mathias Döpfner interviewed Musk for onstage of what the company dubbed “An Evening for Elon Musk – Mission to Mars”. ‘Why don’t you buy Twitter?’ Two years later, Döpfner enthusiastically supported Musk’s effort to buy Twitter. In 2022, according to text messages later released as part of a lawsuit Twitter filed against Musk, Döpfner even offered to help run the social media site. “Why don’t you buy Twitter?” Döpfner wrote. “We run it for you. And establish a true platform of free speech. Would be a real contribution to democracy.” Musk’s response: “Interesting idea”. That didn’t happen, but the two remained on good terms. The following year, Döpfner invited Musk, by then the world’s richest man,to his 60th birthday party at his villa near Lucca. Musk showed up with Dutch far-right influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek, raising more than a few eyebrows. Then in December, Die Welt, Springer’s quality broadsheet, solicited a controversial opinion piece from Musk in which he endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany party for the upcoming election. The paper printed Musk’s submission, which critics complained was tantamount to a campaign ad for the far right, despite intense opposition in the newsroom. Last month, Musk once again returned to the Springer fold to (virtually) participate in Die Welt’s “Economic Summit”, an annual affair that attracts the good and great from the upper echelons of German politics and business. That depth of the Musk-Springer relationship makes the Trump administration’s campaign against Politico all the more puzzling. Losing cachet? For Springer, Politico, which it bought in 2021 for nearly $1 billion, represents not just a sideline, but its future. The company’s legacy German media properties face a murky future as readers abandon print and the economy struggles. Politico has become Springer’s flagship. And Politico’s core business relies heavily on the kind of Pro subscriptions the Trump administration just cancelled. The loss of the US government revenue is not as much of a problem as the reputational blow. A key part Politico’s sales pitch has always been the exclusivity of its readership. In other words, the fact that people inside the government read it (and supply it with scoops) makes people outside the government – lobbyists and the like – want to read it. If you lose that access, you lose the cachet. That’s likely why Springer reacted with such concern in the wake of Trump’s attacks. Politico CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and editor-in-chief, John Harris, issued a joint-memo, which the company attached to many of its newsletters, rejecting the administration’s claim that it had received government subsidies. The pair were careful not to mention Trump by name. “Some online voices are deliberately spreading falsehoods,” they wrote. “Let’s be clear: Politico has no financial dependence on the government and no hidden agenda. We cover politics and policy – that’s our job.” ‘The greatest American figure of his era’ The uproar also highlights a fundamental contradiction in Springer’s transatlantic strategy. In Europe, Springer is known as a conservative publisher and defender of traditional liberal values (it flies both the Ukrainian and Israeli flags outside its headquarters as a show of its solidarity). But Politico’s reputation in the US — especially in MAGA circles — is that it is a bastion of the left-leaning Washington establishment. When Ben Shapiro, the ultra-conservative American commentator, wrote a guest column for Politico a few years ago, the US staff mounted a mutiny. They were also shocked by a leaked 2020 e-mail from Döpfner to his senior staff in which he said – in jest – that they should get together and “pray that Donald Trump will again become president”. For the Trump crowd, Döpfner’s enthusiasm doesn’t appear to have made much of a difference when it comes to Politico. Nor did a column by Harris, the editor, that ran the day after Trump’s inauguration in which he called the president “the greatest American figure of his era.” A delicate moment The furore comes at a delicate moment for Springer (or ‘Axel’, as it is known in the US). The company is in the midst of splitting into two as part of its agreement with private equity group KKR, which made a big investment in the group several years ago. KKR and its partners are cashing out. As part of that arrangement, Springer’s lucrative online classified assets will be transferred into a new company valued at about €10 billion. The media assets, including Politico and the German titles, will remain with Springer. Those businesses are valued at about €3.5 billion. That means Springer will be a much smaller company going forward, one that doesn’t have the same financial cushion to withstand weakness in its legacy media assets. It also means the company will be more dependent on Politico and Business Insider, its US-based business news outlet, to drive growth. With Politico clearly on the Trump administration’s enemy’s list, that job just got a lot harder. | 