WASHINGTON, Feb 14 – A subsidiary of the media and data giant Thomson Reuters yesterday countered a White House attack against Reuters, saying the news agency has been wrongly accused of improperly benefiting from Pentagon contracts.
US president Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have launched attacks against Reuters over a $9 million US Defense Department contract, despite the funding being awarded to a company that operates separately from the news agency.
Trump, with Musk’s backing, is escalating his battle with US media by scrutinizing government contracts with news organizations.
Musk, who leads a campaign to reduce federal spending, has repeatedly criticized these agreements, often mischaracterizing their nature.
The attacks intensified after Musk on Wednesday claimed on social platform X that Reuters, which is owned by the Toronto-based Thomson Reuters Corporation, received millions of dollars from the Defense Department for a “social engineering” program, calling it a “total scam.”
Trump then demanded on Truth Social that “Radical Left Reuters” return the money, while also criticizing Politico and The New York Times over separate government payments.
The contract at issue was actually awarded to Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS), an independent subsidiary of the Thomson Reuters group that is separate from the news agency.
“TRSS is a separate US legal entity governed by an independent Board of Directors that operates independently from Reuters News,” said CEO Steve Rubley, who added that recent public discourse had “inaccurately represented” the relationship between TRSS and the Defense Department.
The programs, according to Rubley, have “provided software and information services to US government agencies across successive administrations for decades, to assist in identifying and preventing fraud, supporting public safety, and advancing justice.”
Trump has widened his attacks on the media, falsely claiming that USAID funneled $8 million to Politico.
Meanwhile, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency alleged the government spent $60 million on New York Times and Associated Press subscriptions, though the Times reported their payments were less than two million dollars last year.
Three US government agencies maintain subscriptions to AFP’s text, photo, and video feeds: the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees public media broadcasting abroad, such as Voice of America; the Department of Defense; and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Public organizations in other countries, media outlets, and private companies also subscribe to AFP’s services.
Trump’s campaign against mainstream media extends beyond financial scrutiny.
His administration has barred AP text reporters from press availabilities in the Oval Office after the agency refused to adopt Trump’s mandated name change from “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.”
He also ordered eight major media outlets, including The New York Times and CNN, to vacate their Pentagon offices to make way for conservative outlets like the New York Post and Breitbart.
In December, ABC News agreed to a $15 million settlement with Trump over alleged defamation by anchor George Stephanopoulos, handing the president a rare victory in his legal battles against news organizations. – AFP
