TMZ staffs up a new team in D.C. to cover “pop culture and politics”

One of the busiest beats in news just got a little more crowded. On Monday, TMZ — the American tabloid outlet known for entertainment and celebrity news — announced that its staffers are now covering Washington D.C. “Our 3 intrepid producers — Charlie Cotton, Jacob Wasserman and Jakson Buhaj — are working The Hill,” the story reads. “So we’re in D.C. … on the hunt for good stories. We’re also going to explore the intersection between pop culture and politics. We have a lot in store in that department!” TMZDC Staff Starts Today!!! https://t.co/KmnBdeJTaA pic.twitter.com/s7wpG8lMtW — TMZ (@TMZ) April 13, 2026 The announcement comes after TMZ spent the last two weeks crowdsourcing photos and information to hold politicians’ feet to the fire during the longest partial government shutdown in United States history. The Department of Homeland Security has been partially shut down since February 14. On March 26, TMZ published an interview with Rebecca Wolf, a furloughed TSA employee who was struggling to make ends meet. TMZ was outraged, founder and executive producer Harvey Levin said in a statement to Nieman Lab, and put a call out to its audience to send in photos and sighting of politicians on spring break trips. Its following is massive; TMZ has 8.2 million followers on both Instagram and X, 6 million TikTok followers, 5.1 million YouTube subscribers, and had 47 million visitors to its website in March, according to SimilarWeb. “We wanted to use our platforms to show how Congress — Dems AND Republicans — have betrayed us,” Levin said. “We spontaneously came up with the idea to juxtapose members of Congress on their Spring Break against federal workers who are losing their homes, their cars, their livelihoods.” Since then, TMZ has published several stories about elected officials on vacation while unpaid DHS employees try to figure out how to pay the next month’s rent. South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham “lives it up” in Disney World. California representative Robert Garcia was snapped at a Las Vegas Casino. New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was seen at a New York Yankees game. On March 27, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to backpay TSA workers, though the department is still partially shut down. The photos are the paparazzi-like iPhone shots we’re used to seeing of celebrities. As Substack writer Joe Mayall tweeted, “TMZ found an interesting political niche. By covering politicians’ corruption like it’s a celebrity scandal, it attracts both audiences.” “@TMZ has this opening because DC journalism is failing at holding the powerful in Washington to account in the Trump era,” another user tweeted. The images seem to have resonated. I looked at TMZ’s 100 most-liked posts between March 26 and April 13. TMZ’s most-liked X post in this timeframe was a photo of Cruz on a flight out of D.C. on March 27. The post has more than 73,000 likes, 11,000 retweets, and 4.8 million views. Senators Ted Cruz and John Thune leave D.C. amid the government shutdown. Exclusive details: https://t.co/CUnFtLge3r pic.twitter.com/q9B9IDLAsw — TMZ (@TMZ) March 27, 2026 Its most retweeted post is an “exclusive” story that spotted several congressional members on a trip to Scotland. For comparison, its entertainment stories from this timeframe have a median of 7,000 likes and a few hundred retweets. Not everyone has been amused by the coverage. Capitol Hill staffers are nervous about their employers’ impending “TMZ moment,” according to Politico. On April 5, Florida senator Rick Scott tweeted a photo of himself at Disney World, saying “Hey TMZ. Yes, I’m at Disney with my grandkids. Should we be in DC? Yes! But I don’t get to make that decision.” “Well, challenge accepted,” TMZ tweeted with its story about Scott’s post. “Our D.C. presence will sometimes be fun,” Levin said, “sometimes intensely serious.”