President Donald Trump is demanding that Reuters return $9 million in federal funds following revelations that its parent company, Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS), received a Pentagon contract for research into social deception. The contract, discovered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has sparked concerns over media involvement in government-funded operations.
DOGE’s findings revealed that the Department of Defense awarded TRSS a contract in 2018 under its cybersecurity research program. The project, which ran through 2022, was listed under “Active Social Engineering Defense” and “Large Scale Social Deception,” raising questions about its purpose and potential impact.
Trump, responding to the news, wrote on Truth Social: “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!”
Elon Musk, who heads DOGE, also weighed in on X, drawing attention to the contract’s description and suggesting that Reuters had been involved in shaping narratives using government funds.
Reuters and TRSS have pushed back against the criticism, stating that the two entities operate separately and that TRSS specializes in risk analysis and fraud detection rather than media influence.
The contract’s disclosure has fueled ongoing efforts by Trump’s administration to scrutinize federal spending, a departure from how the government operated under former President Joe Biden. DOGE is expected to continue investigating similar contracts, with additional findings likely to be released in the coming days.
