After shedding their minds over Politico subscriptions, erroneously claiming they had been funded by USAID, President Donald Trump and DOGE bro Elon Musk are actually flipping out over an alleged $9 million that “radical left” Reuters was given as a part of a protection contract in 2018.
“GIVE BACK THE MONEY, NOW!” Trump posted to Fact Social within the wee hours of the morning on Thursday.
It doesn’t take a genius to recollect, although, that Trump was president in 2018, which means any cash Reuters acquired was given out below his management. What Trump additionally failed to say in his late-night rant is that the cash wasn’t given to Reuters’ newsroom however to a special wing of the corporate that operates individually from the information company.
The assaults on Reuters come as Trump’s administration has sought to discredit the mainstream media, which has to this point included limiting credible retailers’ entry to the White Home and spreading lies about how they’re funded whereas propping up pleasant right-wing podcasters and reporters.
In his Fact Social publish, Trump credited Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity with unearthing this alleged scandal. The contract was first flagged by a “citizen journalist” (i.e., a Musk acolyte) after Musk voiced his displeasure with a current Reuters piece that referred to as out DOGE for having partisan motivations.
“I wonder how much money Reuters is getting from the government?” Musk posted Wednesday evening. “Let’s find out.”
After the contract, which expired in 2022, was revealed, Musk wrote one other publish to his social media platform the place he falsely recommended that Reuters ran disinformation campaigns on the Pentagon’s behalf. In actuality, the contract was paid to Thomson Reuters Particular Companies, which describes itself as a “trusted leader in delivering scalable solutions to governments and global institutions.”
TRSS, a completely separate subsidiary of the bigger Reuters conglomerate, was given the cash within the hopes that it might assist stop cyberattacks and phishing. In different phrases, it was a much more benign mission than what Musk and Trump recommended. The contract issued to TRSS was carried out so by the Air Pressure Analysis Laboratory and was funded by the Protection Advance Analysis Initiatives Company.
Steve Rubley, CEO of TRRS, clarified in an announcement to the Day by day Beast that the entity is fully separate from the Reuters information web site.
“Recent public discourse has conflated these entities and has inaccurately represented the nature of the business between TRSS and the Department of Defense,” he stated. “TRSS has provided software and information services to U.S. government agencies across successive administrations for decades, to assist in identifying and preventing fraud, supporting public safety, and advancing justice.”
He added, “Commercial agreements have no influence over or impact on Reuters editorial coverage.”
Surprisingly, Musk has sufficient time on his palms to try to discredit numerous information companies. Musk, an alleged “special government employee,” has spent the whole thing of Trump’s second administration shedding tons of of 1000’s of federal employees and dismantling authorities companies all within the identify of “government efficiency.”
Then once more, possibly it’s not all that stunning that he’s discovered time to aim to dunk on Reuters. Because the Day by day Beast reported, Musk has raged towards the information aspect of Reuters since a minimum of 2017.
In March, Musk referred to as Reuters “the most deceptive news organization on earth.” He additionally stated in December that the outlet is “paid propaganda.”
Possibly, as a substitute of posting baseless lies to X, Musk ought to spend his time removing extra spending and “fraud,” as he claims to wish to do. In spite of everything, regardless of the brand new fancy title and job obligations the world’s richest man now has, he and Trump have but to point out a lot proof that they’re doing something.
