The Washington Post reportedly killed a $115,000 advertisement calling on President Trump to fire DOGE chief Elon Musk — sparking renewed outcry over censorship at the Jeff Bezos-owned publication.
Advocacy group Common Cause wanted the anti-Musk wraparound ad, which would cover the front and back pages, to run this week but it was scrapped without management providing a reason, according to The Hill.
Common Cause, along with partner Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, had planned to spend $115,000 for both the wraparound ad and a similar full-page ad inside the paper, the outlet reported.
“We are forced to ask ourselves if The Washington Post – a pillar of investigative journalism during Watergate – is unwilling to challenge those in power?” Virginia Kase Solomón, president at Common Cause, told the New York Post in a statement.
“Under Jeff Bezos’ ownership, concerns about corporate influence over the press have only grown, and this decision raises serious questions about the paper’s independence.”
A Washington Post spokesperson directed the New York Post to its advertising guidelines, which state that the paper reserves the right to refuse or revise any advertisements.
The ad featured a large photo of Musk in front of the White House with the text: “Who’s running this country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?”
“The Constitution only allows for one president at a time. Call your senators and tell them it’s time Donald Trump fire Elon Musk,” the ad continued, according to The Hill.
The Beltway broadsheet has been staggered by internal dissent since Bezos scrapped a presidential endorsement for then-Vice President Kamala Harris in October.
Last month, workers demanded a meeting with Bezos to discuss issues causing “readers to question the integrity of this institution.”
The DC-based non-profit had sent a copy of the planned ad to The Washington Post’s advertising department ahead of time, and an advertising sales representative had seemed confident about the ad running – raising no red flags, Solomón told The Hill.
Papers with the wraparound ad would have been delivered to subscribers at Congress, the Pentagon and the White House.
But the publication – which was bought by Amazon founder Bezos in 2013 – told Common Cause that they had to drop the wrap, but could keep the one running inside.
“We said ‘Thanks, no thanks,’ because we had a lot of questions,” Solomón told The Hill.
She said the paper had provided sample art to Common Cause as a guideline for what their own ad would look like.
The sample was a wrap ad featuring a large photo of Trump giving a thumbs up to highlight his promise to “end the electric vehicle mandate on Day 1,” funded by the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, according to The Hill.
“It was a thank-you Donald Trump piece of art,” Solomón said.
Some social media users started circulating the canceled ad on X, citing it as the paper’s latest capitulation to Trump.
“Democracy dies on the cutting room floor,” Pulitzer-winning journalist Mike Stanton wrote in a post on X, twisting the WaPo’s “Democracy Dies in Darkness” tagline.
Common Cause launched its “Fire Elon Musk” campaign earlier this month to protest the billionaire’s growing power as Trump’s right-hand man.
Musk runs the Department of Government Efficiency, a task force aimed at slashing federal spending.
DOGE has put a freeze on federal funding and called for the government to “delete entire agencies.”
Meanwhile, the left-leaning newspaper has suffered backlash internally and from readers since the endorsement scandal.
More than 250,000 readers canceled their WaPo subscriptions in the days after news broke that the editorial board had been blocked from publishing their endorsement of Harris.
Editorial board members and longtime reporters at the paper penned scathing resignation letters.
