Supporters of President Donald Trump are falsely accusing media companies of being agents of secret U.S. influence after discovering the two-decade-old website USASpending.gov.
Reuters, in particular, was flagged for running a military-funded “social deception” campaign against the U.S. public.
And Politico, which missed payroll this week because of a technical glitch, faced claims it had been secretly propped up by federal grants. One poster incorrectly tied it to USAID, the agency whose funding is currently under siege by Elon Musk and DOGE.
The conspiracy theory around Reuters appeared on Wednesday thanks to a post from right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong, who showcased a public government contract that he deemed suspicious.
“Can someone explain to me why the Department of Defense provided $9,147,532.00 to Reuters for ‘ACTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING DEFENSE (ASED) LARGE SCALE SOCIAL DECEPTION (LDF),’” Cheong wrote in a post seen over 7.8 million times.
Cheong’s post was immediately bombarded with conspiratorial remarks from those convinced that the corporate media was working with the government to deceive the public.
“Those who commit these crimes should be jailed, as they amount to nothing more than social engineering for the benefit of the elite,” another proclaimed.
“What’s wild is that we would have never known any of this had Trump not been reelected,” one user responded in reference to the public records, despite the site written into law in 2006.
All U.S. government contracts have been public and searchable since the site launched.
The government contract highlighted by Cheong doesn’t refer to the media outlet but to Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC (TRSS), a company that provides specialized data, analytics, and intelligence solutions primarily for U.S. government agencies, law enforcement, and national security organizations.
The Reuters media outlet is a division within Thomson Reuters, a multinational corporation that offers professional services and information in areas like law, finance, tax, and media. TRSS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Thomson Reuters and unrelated to the media arm.
Cheong eventually discovered the difference, noting in a follow-up post that the contract he’d sensationally highlighted was unrelated to the media company.
“This isn’t Reuters’ news agency, by the way,” Cheong said.
The subject of the contracts, which were awarded to TRSS by the Department of Defense, doesn’t involve swindling the public, either. ASED, or Active Social Engineering Defense, refers to a program that aims to “automatically identify, disrupt, and investigate social engineering attacks,” a tactic used by threat actors to manipulate individuals into revealing sensitive information or taking actions that compromise security.
LSD, or Large Scale Social Deception, suggests similar capabilities used to analyze and detect foreign influence operations, used by nation-states to shape public opinion through the use of disinformation networks or fake social media activity.
Despite Cheong’s attempts to walk back his original framing, the story cemented itself as legitimate in the minds of Trump supporters. Such inaccurate posts have exploded in recent days as the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) works to slash government spending.
A similar incident unfolded after right-wing sleuths searching USASpending.gov thought the media outlet Politico received money from USAID.
“Fun Fact: @Politico received USAID funds. Everything makes sense now,” read a post with 12 million views.
Pro-Trump commentator Benny Johnson referred to the finding as “the biggest scandal in news media history,” while conservative radio host Dana Loesch called for protests outside Politico’s offices.
“I want my money back, @politico : you stole from the overtaxed American people to push propaganda,” Loesch wrote. “Rage isn’t enough for this. You disgraceful bastards.”
In reality, the money for Politico, which came to $8 million, gave the entire federal government access to pro-tier subscriptions from Politico, which offers services such as regulatory and legislative tracking tools.
Politico recently sold for a billion dollars, making the $8 million contract a relatively insignificant amount.
Nevertheless, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Wednesday that the federal government’s contract with Politico would be ended.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
