The White House warned Politico on Monday to retract three stories, or it will pay a price.
The three palace-intrigue stories, all published in October, include one titled “Trump’s ice maiden is under fire,” that claimed President Trump was mulling a replacement for White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Another was deemed “unbelievably stupid and false” by the White House at the time and claimed that one of its own stories caused a “freakout” in the Trump admin and that the president “blew up” over it.
The third suggested that Susie Wiles set up Katie Zacharia to fail in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity ahead of her ouster.
White House Counsel Will Scharf warned Politico on Monday that it had 48 hours to “retract or correct” the stories or it would “suffer unspecified consequences,” in a letter obtained by Axios.
The White House counsel’s office warned Politico in a Monday letter that it had 48 hours to retract or correct recent stories revolving around COS Susie Wiles — or it would suffer unspecified consequences.
https://t.co/yKLCpdZfVP
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) October 21, 2026
“Freedom of the press is not a professional exemption from accountability,” the letter continued. “I therefore demand that Politico immediately correct or retract these publications, issue a prominent and public apology to the President of the United States and to Ms. Wiles, and remove the false reporting from your digital archives.”
Scharf warned Politico that failure to comply would prompt “immediate review of Politico’s relationship with the White House, and, of course, consideration of all other appropriate and available legal remedies.”
The White House demand is an escalation in the ongoing legal battle with Politico, CNN and MS NOW after it banned the outlets from the Oval Office and Air Force One over biased reporting.
Politico offered a correction to one of the stories after Fox News denied a Zacharia “set up” on “Hannity.”
“CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report, including its headline, mischaracterized the role White House chief of staff Susie Wiles played in then-press secretary Katie Zacharia’s interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News,” the outlet said. “POLITICO’s follow-up reporting indicates she did not play a direct role in setting up the interview.”
