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The publisher of Politico has parted ways with a pro-Trump board member just days after he accused the outlet of leftwing bias.

Martín Varsavsky, an Argentine entrepreneur who has been on the supervisory board of the German media giant Axel Springer since 2014, took aim at the US news outlet’s “ethical standards” on Wednesday as he announced his resignation.

In a post on the social media platform X, Varsavsky said that news coverage at the Berlin-based publisher’s German titles Bild and Die Welt was “balanced and fair”. But he added: “Regarding Politico, I find their news coverage not aligned with my own ethical standards. USA has changed, Germany has changed, hopefully so will Politico.”

Axel Springer, which bought Politico for about $1bn in 2021 as part of a push into the US market, declined to comment.

But two people familiar with the matter said that Varsavsky’s departure from the board had long been planned as part of an overhaul related to the company’s impending €13.5bn split from the US private equity firm KKR. 

Varsavsky’s recent public comments about Politico — which caused deep anger within the ranks of the news outlet as well as at its parent company — triggered a debate about whether or not to fire him ahead of time, the people said. One added that ultimately it was decided that it was better to hold off. Varsavsky did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Varsavsky, who describes himself as a friend of Elon Musk, criticised the journalists that worked on Axel Springer’s publications as “woke” in a now-deleted post on X last week. He also accused Politico of “one-sided Hamas support” for publishing an article by the Associated Press about Israeli air strikes in Gaza.

Axel Springer has found itself treading a fine line since Donald Trump’s second administration has made overt threats against news groups for their White House coverage.

The US president last month described Politico, which positions itself as politically impartial, as a “leftwing rag” and ordered his officials to end government subscriptions to the site. It was among several media outlets removed from the Pentagon offices in favour of other, right-leaning outlets. 

Trump has also falsely claimed that Politico — which on Wednesday published an article about the US president’s war on public media — had received $8mn in funding from the US Agency for International Development, the foreign aid agency that his government has tried to axe.

The tensions have created a bind for Axel Springer chief executive and co-owner Mathias Döpfner, who casts himself as a contrarian opponent of “woke” culture and has courted figures close to Trump, including Musk.

In an interview with the Financial Times last month, he praised a contentious speech by US vice-president JD Vance as “inspiring” and played down the seriousness of the attack on Politico as a “misunderstanding”. 

But Döpfner — who has said he would be interested in acquiring Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal if it ever came up for sale — has also called on the Trump administration to respect the right to free speech. Earlier this month, the avowed transatlanticist said that Trump’s dressing down of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a visit to the White House had “destroyed” his hope in the US president.

Varsavsky, who founded several telecoms and WiFi companies, has become an increasingly strident critic of Politico. He also became embroiled in a political row in Germany at the start of this year after he admitted to playing a role in the publication of a controversial opinion piece by Musk, in which he set out his reasons for supporting the far-right Alternative for Germany.

Varsavsky himself has said on social media that Germany needed the party — large parts of which have been officially deemed right-wing extremist by the country’s intelligence service — to “get rid of leftist over regulation and Islamist colonisation under the guise of diversity”.

He has praised Trump for his drive to slash government spending, for pulling out of the Paris climate agreement and his stance on Israel, although Varsavsky has also criticised tariffs and the US president’s stance on Ukraine.

Bill Ackman, who is a prominent Trump supporter, last year threatened legal action against Axel Springer and its US-based Business Insider financial news site over plagiarism claims against the hedge fund boss’s wife.