The DOGE discovered a massive fraudulent scheme involving Reuters.

Donald Trump has demanded that Elon Musk, his main person in charge of reducing government costs, recover millions of dollars that the federal government paid to Reuters for a mysterious project called "defense against social engineering."

This contract, which was discovered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Musk, reveals that the Pentagon awarded $9.15 million to Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS), a subsidiary of the Reuters corporation. The contract began in September 2018 and ended in November 2022.

The contract, registered under the Pentagon's "Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services" and "Research and Development" programs, focused on a project called "Active Social Engineering Defense" (ASED), which addresses the threats of online attacks, such as phishing, where criminals gain access to systems or information through deception.

The goal of ASED is to improve the United States' cybersecurity by developing systems capable of detecting, analyzing, and mitigating threats that exploit human psychology.

The outrage of DOGE and Trump over this contract not only stems from the high cost but also from the nature of the payment and the connection with Reuters. 

Musk and Trump expressed their bewilderment at the fact that Reuters, a well-known news agency, received such a significant amount for a project related to the "large scale of social deception," as stated in the purchase order. Musk was particularly skeptical and called it a "total scam" in a post on X. 

The ASED project was awarded to TRSS due to its "experience in risk management and fraud detection", essential areas for countering social engineering threats and strengthening national cybersecurity.

Additionally, the contract notes that some funds provided between 2020 and 2022 were related to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically with the Disaster Emergency Fund Code (DEFC) "N," indicating that those funds were distributed in an emergency capacity.

This demand by Trump for the Pentagon to recover the $9 million paid to TRSS comes after the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, ordered the return of $59 million.

DOGE also discovered that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) paid large sums of money to top-level hotels in New York to house illegal migrants, an action against Trump's direct orders.

As a result, four senior financial officials at FEMA were fired for carrying out these payments.

Additionally, government payments to news agencies have been a recurring topic of debate in recent years. A notable case was Politico, which received $8 million from the questioned United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for its employees to access the Politico Pro subscription, a policy analysis platform.

Although Politico Pro is not strictly a news platform, but a Democratic political intelligence service, Politico was criticized for its marked "anti-Trump" bias.

In this context, Trump and his allies have used these cases as evidence that traditional media is increasingly leaning to the left and, in their opinion, promoting a dangerous anti-Trump bias.

The transparency of DOGE, which plans to publish receipts of the savings obtained by the government, is seen as part of its effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of its work in cost reduction and efficiency improvement in federal agencies.

The controversy over the $9 million contract between the Pentagon and Reuters has caused a strong reaction from Trump and Musk, who rightly consider that the funds were wasted on a suspicious project.