Trump Demands ‘Radical Left’ Reuters Return $9 Million to US Gov — That He Gave Them — After Baseless Elon Musk Claim

mediaite.com ^ | Feb 13, 2025 | David Gilmour

[ransomnote]

President Donald Trump unleashed on “Radical Left Reuters” over a 2018 Pentagon contract to “study large-scale social deception”—a contract awarded during his own administration—and demanded the news agency “GIVE BACK THE MONEY, NOW!”

The brief but furious outburst was pushed out early on Thursday as the president cited the revelation as a finding of his newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump posted 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!

Indeed, DOGE’s agency head Elon Musk boosted a post on X claiming the contract showed the “news agency received millions for social engineering.”

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

Musk’s implication was more controversial, that Reuters, a respected global news agency, was somehow running disinformation campaigns on behalf of the Pentagon. That, however, appears to be a misreading, or deliberate misrepresentation, of a publicly available government document.

[MNJohnnie]

Here is the crux of what Grok the AI on X is showing. This does not pass the smell test. Why would DOD give Reuters money to address what is a law enforcement issue?

"Purpose of the Funding: According to various reports, the contract was for defending against social engineering threats and large-scale social deception, focusing on cybersecurity and misinformation prevention. The ASED component aimed to develop systems to detect, analyze, and mitigate cyber threats like phishing and other social engineering attacks."

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Yes sir, I know it is 3AM.
I’m sorry sir that the bureaucracy has illegally filled your day with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.
But if you could see your way to reviewing and approving this 9M contract with Reuters, it sure would be appreciated.
Oh, the money needs to be sent tomorrow morning.

[Teacher317]

a contract awarded during his own administration

True, but he (and we) have since discovered what a large percentage of his hires were simply Deep State devotees. He CLEARLY is not making that mistake again. Just because it was authorized during Trump I, does not mean that Trump II cannot oppose and fix it. In fact, it gives even more reason and proper moral authority to fix the mistakes of the past that were done during Trump I.

[aspasia]

a contract awarded during his own administration

Ouch, that's gotta hurt.

[MNJohnnie]

Nope, It an infantile stupid dig.

REALLY think the US President goes thru every contract by every agency during his Administration?

[Lazamataz]

Trump Demands ‘Radical Left’ Reuters Return $9 Million to US Gov — That He Gave Them — After Baseless Elon Musk Claim

Ah! Back to their tried-and-true gaslighting!

Elon Musk's controversial claims are baseless, unfounded, and unsubstantiated. This is sweeping and systemic disinformation. These spurious accusations have been thoroughly debunked, utterly refuted, and completely put to rest. No credible evidence exists to support these shaky assertions, and numerous fact-checkers have marked these allegations as FALSE. Based on the reports of these fact-checkers alone, there is no further need to investigate these outlandish claims. They have been thoroughly discredited and contradicted. Continuing to push these far-fetched conspiracies, in the form of Russian lies, is sedition.

[Teacher317]

Even their link to the publicly available document literally says “LARGE SCALE DECEPTION” and “ACTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING DEFENSE”, repeatedly.

[grimalkin]

Baseless? These people are deluded beyond help.

[SPDSHDW]

Same line of thought that assumes Trump authorizes all transactions for his businesses……

[PMAS]

“study large-scale social deception” - the word STUDY was not on the purchase order.

[Dr. Sivana]

The idea that the US President oversees every stupid contract the US Government hands out is infantilely stupid even for your room level intellects.

Especially when you consider that he was surrounded by people actively obfuscating and hiding information from him.

[lurk]

In 2018 all of the funny money was hidden out of sight.

This is 2025. We have DOGE and Elon’s teenage phenoms. We see more.

[sauropod]

bkmk

[aspasia]

/s

[Steve_Seattle]

"Trump demands Reuters return money that HE gave them"

Of course, the fact that the money was awarded during the Trump administration doesn't mean that Trump even knew about it. More sleazy journalism.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

“Baseless”. Elon Musk’s bowel movements have more credibility than anything ever produced by Mediaite.

[Political Junkie Too]

That, however, appears to be a misreading, or deliberate misrepresentation, of a publicly available government document.

You mean like saying RFJ, Jr caused a measles outbreak in Samoa?

-PJ

[Colorado Doug]

Well they are subject matter experts in the field of large-scale social deception. That’s what they do best. Might as well go to the pros. Did they provide the report?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

“Baseless.”

Except for all the evidence.

[lasereye]

"Trump demands Reuters return money that HE gave them"

Of course, the fact that the money was awarded during the Trump administration doesn't mean that Trump even knew about it. More sleazy journalism.

Trump did not have a DOGE in place in his first term. Otherwise it would have been blocked back then. It's worth noting that his Secy of Defense was an establishment Republican. Probably he wasn't aware of it either, but if he had been maybe he would have been in favor of it.