WTF is the gov't doing making payments to Reuters.

The contract was filed under the Pentagon's 'Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services' and 'Research and Development' programs. And a pro-Trump incubator and investing consultant claims the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) says the contract to TRSS was for cyber defense.

Thomson Reuters Corporation is the company under which the government relations services company TRSS falls. But it is also the parent corporation for the news agency Reuters.

The connection to the media company is likely what led to the outrage from DOGE, Musk and Trump over the multi-million-dollar contract.

'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 demanded in a post to his Truth Social account on Thursday.

But even more concerning to DOGE than just the price-tag and its connection to the Reuters news agency was the description of reasoning for the awarded contract.

On the government website that tracks and publishes contracts the federal agencies award to private companies, the $9 million contract for TRSS is listed on the purchase order as being for 'Active Social Engineering Defense (ASED) Large Scale Social Deception (LSD).'

'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!' Musk lamented on X.