White House refuses to pay for Twitter’s Blue verification

The White House won’t be subscribing to Twitter Blue, telling staffers in an email on Friday that they’ll have to pay out-of-pocket if they want to keep their blue checkmarks, the New York Post reported.

Twitter plans to wind down its legacy verified program on Saturday, removing blue checkmarks from accounts that don’t sign up for its $8 per month Twitter Blue service – a change announced after new owner Elon Musk took over the company.

“It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service,” White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty informed staffers via email, according to Axios.

“Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user,” Flaherty continued.