Musk says Reuters took millions of dollars from the Pentagon – Trump reacts: Return the money immediately

Elon Musk, billionaire and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the US, shared a message today on the X platform claiming that the US government has paid millions of dollars to the Reuters news agency for a program called "Large-Scale Social Harm".

This is a project launched during the first term of US President Donald Trump and is linked to a company that operates separately from the news agency.

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

The US government has engaged Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS), which collaborates with governments and intelligence agencies on projects related to data analysis, cybersecurity, risk assessments, training and more.

The owner of TRSS is Thomson Reuters Corporation. This same corporation also owns the Reuters news agency.

"The US government paid Reuters millions of dollars for 'large-scale social harm'. It's written all over the order! They are a total fraud. Simply wow," Musk wrote.

Musk wrote this message immediately after Reuters reported that the US government's spending cuts to Musk's DOGE were largely based on ideology and not savings.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump also wrote on his personal social network, Truth Social, that "it appears that the Department of Defense paid $9 million for the 'large-scale social damage' study by Reuters, which is radically leftist."

The TFSS contract was awarded in 2018 by the Air Force Research Laboratory and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The project description states that it is a study on “large-scale social deception” for DARPA.

The agency emphasizes that the goal is "to develop core technology that will enable the automated identification, prevention, and investigation of social engineering attacks."

Otherwise, TRSS and the Reuters agency have not commented on these statements. /Telegraph/