NEW: Trump Announces DOGE’s Latest Bombshell Revelation: ‘Give Back The Money, Now!’

President Donald Trump on Thursday laid out a bombshell claim that the Biden administration’s U.S. Department of Defense was engaged in yet another multi-million dollar contract with a major news outlet.

In a brief post on Truth Social, the Republican accused former defense officials of approving a $9 million contract with Reuters, the international outlet that rivals the Associated Press in both size and scope. The deal, according to Trump, involved studying “large scale money deception” though his revelation didn’t contain further information.

“Give the money back, now!” Trump wrote in an all-capitalized reaction to the news.

The discovery comes as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s widespread probe into the inner workings of the federal budget, much of which has been laid bare by leader Elon Musk over the past few weeks. Among the announcements was news of other payments to media outlets like the AP and Politico for what President Trump has claimed was a quid pro quo: dozens of pricey subscription plans in exchange for favorable coverage of Democrats.

Trump doubled down on that accusation in a follow-up post on Thursday.

“DOGE: Why was Politico paid Millions of Dollars for NOTHING. Buying the press??? PAY BACK THE MONEY TO THE TAXPAYERS! How much has the Failing New York Times paid? Is this the money that is keeping it open??? THEY ARE BUYING THE PRESS!” he wrote.

Other media outlets as well as the White House Correspondents’ Association have risen to the defense of both outlets, claiming the White House is mischaracterizing the payments. The expenditures were for access by high-level bureaucrats to additional coverage of Washington, D.C.’s machinations through ultra-expensive Politico Pro accounts.

Still, the breadth of subscriptions is breathtaking: before USAID was dismantled, DOGE investigators found the agency was paying Politico approximately $500,000 annually for 37 premium accounts.

Just three weeks into his presidency, Trump and Musk have vowed to push back against criticism of the administration by mainstream news outlets. The AP was denied access to an Oval Office press conference on Tuesday after editors refused to begin using the term “Gulf of America” in their stories. Musk, meanwhile, has lashed out at multiple outlets for “doxxing” some of his employees at DOGE by publicly revealing their names.

Last week, the editors of Politico released a note at the top of the outlet’s national and state-level Playbook newsletters refuting the notion that the millions of dollars in subscriptions had anything to do with payola.

“POLITICO is a privately owned company. We have never received any government funding — no subsidies, no grants, no handouts. Not one dime, ever, in 18 years,” read a public letter from CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and Editor-in-Chief John Harris. “POLITICO Pro is different. It is a professional subscription service used by companies, organizations, and, yes, some government agencies. They subscribe because it makes them better at their jobs.

“Government agencies that subscribe do so through standard public procurement processes — just like any other tool they buy to work smarter and be more efficient. This is not funding. It is a transaction — just as the government buys research, equipment, software and industry reports. Some online voices are deliberately spreading falsehoods. Let’s be clear: POLITICO has no financial dependence on the government and no hidden agenda. We cover politics and policy — that’s our job.”

Still, the latest revelation about payments to Reuters is sure to prompt further scrutiny of what “money deception” Reuters was studying and where.