At the end of February 2025, news spread on social networks: three years ago, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) allegedly paid Time magazine to give the title of Person of the Year to Vladimir Zelensky. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
On February 28, publications about USAID sponsoring Time magazine went viral. According to these reports, an American agency paid for the President of Ukraine to be recognized as Person of the Year. A video allegedly released by the New York Post was cited as evidence. The video states that since Trump returned to the White House, the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) has discovered a huge amount of government waste. In 2022, the video states, USAID paid $4 million to Time, and in 2024, more than $8 million to Politico. In addition, USAID allegedly sponsored 6,200 journalists in 707 media outlets and another 279 non-profit media organizations. At the end of the video, Trump speaks about the billions of dollars spent by USAID and other government agencies to support the Democratic Party and its agenda.
The video itself or information from it was shared by Telegram channels “Uncle Slava"(170,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Voblya • news"(125,000), "Bocharik (yep, that same one)"(106,000), "Ivan Utenkov | Kursk"(75,000), “Three heroes and Zelensky drug addict"(42,000).
December 7, 2022 Time admitted man of the year Vladimir Zelensky and the spirit of Ukraine - under this concept the magazine united all Ukrainians who resisted the Russian invasion. The editors' explanation said that the Ukrainian president had become a symbol of resilience, uniting his country and receiving unprecedented support from the West. According to the editors of Time, Zelensky’s decision to stay in Kyiv and use his influence in the information space was fateful.
Time Person of the Year Award existing since 1927, is one of the most famous journalistic traditions. The editors of the magazine select the person, group of people, idea or object that had the greatest influence on the events of the past year - regardless of whether this influence was positive or negative. Decisions are made solely by Time editors, without outside interference, voting or sponsorship. Traditionally, the winner is announced in December, summing up the year. In addition to Zelensky, Trump became the person of the year (in 2016 And 2024 year) and his close associate Elon Musk (in 2021), as well as Vladimir Putin (in 2007).
In the upper right corner of the video is the New York Post logo. The video itself consists of photographs and collages previously published in open sources and is accompanied by a voice-over by the presenter. English subtitles are visible at the bottom of the screen. However, apart from the logo on the cover, the viral video differs significantly from the video materials published in the verified accounts of the New York Post. Firstly, it is made in a horizontal format, which is not typical for such short news videos on YouTube or Instagram. Secondly, as a rule, in original The publication's commercials use voice-over music accompanied by subtitles. When the news is announced by the presenter, his face, name and position are also are indicated in the video. Thirdly, the design itself is very different from the style of the New York Post: in the original video The publication's logo is placed in the upper right corner only on covers, while the title text is usually absent there. In the first frame and further in the original videos, the logo is added immediately below the title. In addition, the two videos use different fonts.
The video being distributed does not indicate which of the New York Post reporters is voicing it. This voice is not found in the publication’s actual videos; moreover, it sounds monotonous and unnatural. All this suggests that the voice acting could have been created using artificial intelligence (AI). Fact checkers from Lead Stories checked the audio track through the tool InVid. The analysis showed that the voiceover was most likely generated by AI.
On the website usaspending.gov, which contains information on US government procurement, there is no information about the sponsorship of Time magazine by any American agency. A search by the name of the legal entity does not yield any results - this suggests that no budgetary funds were spent on the work of this media outlet. Edition financed primarily through advertising revenue, branded content and subscription sales.
“Verified” did not find the story or information about payment for the title “person of the year” for Zelensky on any of the official resources of the New York Post (X, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, official website). Other media also do not confirm this information.
The viral video also contains data on the transfer of $8 million to Politico in 2024. “Verified” in detail told about this statement in another analysis. This is also not true, Politico received this money from various parts of the US government for purchasing access to the Politico Pro platform, and not in the form of grants or royalties for specific articles.
Creating videos that mimic stories from reputable media outlets is an extremely popular technique among pro-Kremlin fake makers. "Checked" more than once sorted it out similar cases, including dedicated USAID spending. However, in the case of the New York Post video primary source It is not an anonymous pro-Russian Telegram channel, but an English-language account in X with the username MAGA Finest (@emeraldTEC). He posted a post with a fake video on February 26 at 20:25 Moscow time, the video received 18,000 views. The content on the @emeraldTEC page primarily consists of AI-generated images, calls for follow and interaction, and retweets of posts from right-wing politicians. After 20 min. after the first publication, the same video appeared on the Johny Midnight page (@its_The_Dr), where more than 4 million users saw it. Next he broke up and according to Russian-language sources.
After the Trump administration suspended USAID and announced an audit of its operations, unsubstantiated claims about alleged hidden US government spending began to spread across the Internet. Similar news has become popular, including in Russian-language Telegram channels and the media. "Verified" published two collections with analysis of such messages.
Thus, the New York Post did not release a video about USAID paying Time magazine $4 million to give Zelensky the title of “Person of the Year.” The viral video was faked and the information in it is not true.
Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons
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- Stars for Ukraine, condoms for Hamas, grants for the media. Analysis of five statements about USAID
- Internal corruption, investments in Gaza and an anti-Russian troll factory. Analysis of five more statements about USAID
- Is it true that the US government paid Reuters millions of dollars for a “massive social deception”?
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