President Donald Trump took aim at Reuters in a Truth Social post where he demanded the “Radical Left” news agency return $9 million to the US government.
The president’s brief demand followed the exposure of more contracts being uncovered by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk had posted a message about Reuters being paid millions by the government in a “large scale social deception.”
“DOGE: Looks like Radical Left Reuters was paid $9,000,000 by the Department of Defense to study ‘large scale social deception.’ GIVE BACK THE MONEY, NOW!” Trump posted on his social media platform early Thursday.
“Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for ‘large scale social deception,'” Musk had written in a post the president appeared to be referencing. “That is literally what it says on the purchase order! They’re a total scam. Just wow.”
His post was in reaction to another claiming that Reuters was paid $9 million by the Department of Defense for a “social engineering” program.
Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception”.
That is literally what it says on the purchase order! They’re a total scam.
Just wow. https://t.co/GGxoVQSwN8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2025
“DOGE investigations reveal mysterious Defense Department payments to Reuters for ‘large scale social deception’ project between 2018-2022,” the post read, citing Ian Miles Cheong. “While DARPA claims it was for cyber defense, questions swirl about why a news agency received millions for ‘social engineering.’ The revelation comes as other media outlets face scrutiny over federal funding.”
Reuters has frequently attacked Musk and his various companies, recently claiming that the effort by the billionaire and the president to cut government waste and fraud “appears driven more by an ideological assault on federal agencies long hated by conservatives than a good-faith effort to save taxpayer dollars, according to two veteran Republican budget experts.”
However according to defenders of Reuters, rather than the news agency being involved in an effort on behalf of the Pentagon, the “contract was actually paid to a wholly separate subsidiary of the broader Reuters conglomerate, Thomson Reuters Special Services,” the Independent reported.
“This subsidiary describes itself as a ‘trusted leader in delivering scalable solutions to governments and global institutions’ through data analysis and risk mitigation. The company operates independently from the news agency and is similar in scope and mission to organizations like LexisNexis,” the outlet continued.
“The contract was issued to Thomson Reuters Special Services in 2018 by the Air Force Research Laboratory and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,” the outlet noted, pointing out that Trump was serving his first term as president at the time.
