DOGE Findings

[essentialsaltes]

“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!” President Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday after it was revealed Reuters was paid big bucks to engage in social engineering.

https://www.reuters.com/business/us-defense-department-contract-inaccurately-represented-social-media-says-2025-02-13/

The contract, opens new tab in question was a four-year, $9 million award, beginning in 2018 during Trump's first term and ending in 2022, between the U.S. Department of Defense and a division of the Toronto-based content and technology company called Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS). The contract was intended to protect the U.S. government from social engineering, which is a form of cyber threat in which people are tricked into divulging sensitive information.

The contract was awarded to TRSS by the Air Force Research Laboratory and funded by DARPA.

DARPA told Reuters that the ASED program, which ended in 2022, "was to develop tools to protect people from social engineering attacks."

The term "Large Scale Social Deception" was the name of the "red team" proposal, DARPA said, referring to work by Thomson Reuters Special Services to simulate an adversarial attack by pretending to be the enemy.

 

[Vambram]

https://www.reuters.com/business/us-defense-department-contract-inaccurately-represented-social-media-says-2025-02-13/

The contract, opens new tab in question was a four-year, $9 million award, beginning in 2018 during Trump's first term and ending in 2022, between the U.S. Department of Defense and a division of the Toronto-based content and technology company called Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS). The contract was intended to protect the U.S. government from social engineering, which is a form of cyber threat in which people are tricked into divulging sensitive information.

The contract was awarded to TRSS by the Air Force Research Laboratory and funded by DARPA.

DARPA told Reuters that the ASED program, which ended in 2022, "was to develop tools to protect people from social engineering attacks."

The term "Large Scale Social Deception" was the name of the "red team" proposal, DARPA said, referring to work by Thomson Reuters Special Services to simulate an adversarial attack by pretending to be the enemy.

This explanation from Reuters sounds a little bit like some doublespeak to me. Of course, one does expect Reuters to attempt to give an explanation for that contract which puts them into a favorable light.

 

[essentialsaltes]

This explanation from Reuters sounds a little bit like some doublespeak to me.

The accusations from "Tesla CEO Musk, Trump, the Hungarian government and Russian state media" sound a lot like people beclowning themselves in front of billions of people.

 

[Vambram]

The accusations from "Tesla CEO Musk, Trump, the Hungarian government and Russian state media" sound a lot like people beclowning themselves in front of billions of people.

Opinions vary.

 

[essentialsaltes]

This explanation from Reuters sounds a little bit like some doublespeak to me.

How about the explanation from the Department of Defense?

A Defense Department spokesperson, Chelsea Dietlin, said in a statement that Thomson Reuters Special Services won a competitive bidding process to test defensive tools the military was developing to guard against phishing and other social engineering attacks. She noted that the contractor is separate from Reuters’ news service and has customers in intelligence, law enforcement and defense.

 

[DaisyDay]

What I don't like is Trump's implementation of policy seems sledgehammer when he should be using a scalpel. I hope something doesn't break.

From what I understand from the young Musk minions, the idea is to break it all then fix what matters.

 

[Hans Blaster]

How about the explanation from the Department of Defense?

A Defense Department spokesperson, Chelsea Dietlin, said in a statement that Thomson Reuters Special Services won a competitive bidding process to test defensive tools the military was developing to guard against phishing and other social engineering attacks. She noted that the contractor is separate from Reuters’ news service and has customers in intelligence, law enforcement and defense.

I get email regularly from a former Thomson Reuters division (Clarivate) which runs the "Web of Science" science tracking database service that was part of Thomson before it merged with Reuters and has been since spun off.

T-R is a big data and analytic company and one of its divisions is a very old news wire service - Reuters. There are many firms and institutions that pay T-R for various data and analytic services (for example, in the old days, an institutional subscription to "Web of Science").

 

[Always in His Presence]

From what I understand from the young Musk minions, the idea is to break it all then fix what matters.

I understand the DNC minions are still trying to turn on their computers. Those fancy thingamajiggers.

Minions is so cute a reference!

Kevin is my favorite

 

[Laodicean60]

From what I understand from the young Musk minions

I am kinda impressed with these young people, not many kids can step in and find waste.

 

[Hans Blaster]

I am kinda impressed with these young people, not many kids can step in and find waste.

They aren't. They are just pointing at things they don't like and calling it waste.

 

[DaisyDay]

I am kinda impressed with these young people, not many kids can step in and find waste.

I'm not in the least bit convinced that "waste" is what they are actually looking for.

 

[Vambram]

Reinventing Government

Al Gore has led the administration's effort to reform and reinvent government --making it work better, cost less, and get results American care about.

Under Reinventing Government:

• $136 billion has been saved since 1993.
• Per capita government spending has actually gone down for the first time since President Eisenhower's administration.
• With 377,000 fewer employees, the federal government is now the smallest it has been since President Eisenhower.

The National Partnership for Reinventing Government is now working to achieve further progress for the American people:

• Agencies that have the most contact with the public are reforming themselves to deliver better and faster customer service.
• Al Gore is leading the effort to move toward "e-government"- to put critical government information and services on the Internet. Through this effort, NPR has worked with agencies to establish one-stop web sites to help students apply for educational loans, help seniors find out about their Social Security benefits, and help small business owners get assistance and access to capital. By the end of the year, more than 40 million Americans will transact business with the government electronically.
• New partnerships are being formed with state and local governments and the private sector to focus on and achieve clear goals, such as dramatically reducing gun violence; helping states provide health insurance for all children; and helping all Americans get the job skills they need to succeed in the 21st Century.

By improving government, all of these efforts are aimed at restoring the American people's trust in self-government and their confidence that government can make a positive difference in their lives.

Reinvention Initiatives

Hypocrisy at Its Finest: Democrats Screech Over Trump's DOGE Task Force—But Clinton Did the Same Thing! Here’s 40 Minutes of Clinton and Al Gore Bragging About Cutting the Federal Workforce, Eliminating Agencies, and Slashing Regulations (VIDEO) | Th

The Democrats' fierce criticism of Trump's DOGE task force starkly contrasts with their own past initiatives under Clinton. This post reveals the hypocrisy and highlights a history of government efficiency efforts.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

 

[SimplyMe]

“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!” President Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday after it was revealed Reuters was paid big bucks to engage in social engineering.

“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!” Elon Musk stated on X.

“They’re a total scam. Just wow.”

‘Just wow.’ Trump demands Reuters give back $9M ‘NOW’ after DOGE strikes again

Oh, what tangled webs Dems and their media lapdogs weave, and now Trump is demanding OUR money back. “DOGE: Los like Radical Left Reuters was paid $9,000,000 […]

www.bizpacreview.com

Another false claim, particularly since the contract was made while Trump was President, in 2018.

From The Independent, "Despite how Trump, Musk, and their allies are portraying it, the contract was actually paid to a wholly separate subsidiary of the broader Reuters conglomerate, Thomson Reuters Special Services. This subsidiary describes itself as a “trusted leader in delivering scalable solutions to governments and global institutions” through data analysis and risk mitigation. The company operates independently from the news agency and is similar in scope and mission to organizations like LexisNexis.

"While the implication from Musk and Trump was that the Reuters news service was running a disinformation campaign on behalf of the Pentagon, the truth of the matter is far more benign. It also began under Trump’s first administration in the first place — and was centered mainly on preventing cyberattacks and phishing."

 

[SimplyMe]

This explanation from Reuters sounds a little bit like some doublespeak to me. Of course, one does expect Reuters to attempt to give an explanation for that contract which puts them into a favorable light.

Odd, then, such as my post above, that other news organizations have found the same thing -- that the contract was let in 2018, under Pres. Trump and was not with the Reuters News company but Thompson Reuters Special Services.

 

[Laodicean60]

They aren't. They are just pointing at things they don't like and calling it waste.

So out of the things they like, you don't think any of it is wasteful. Fraud and duplicate programs, Isn't there something that you agree with?

I'm not in the least bit convinced that "waste" is what they are actually looking for.

What would convince you? I think some of these news articles are truthful.

 

[DaisyDay]

So out of the things they like, you don't think any of it is wasteful. Fraud and duplicate programs, Isn't there something that you agree with?

What would convince you? I think some of these news articles are truthful.

What would help convince me is if they had people well versed in the particular area do a [detailed] analysis of the actual programs involved instead of taking a sledge hammer approach. (Oopsie! We need experts in nuclear facilities? Who could've possibly known?!) It would also help if they followed existing law instead of illegally firing people and if they didn't blatantly target "enemies".

 

[Hans Blaster]

So out of the things they like, you don't think any of it is wasteful. Fraud and duplicate programs, Isn't there something that you agree with?

What would convince you? I think some of these news articles are truthful.

They are not trying to demonstrate waste. They make no arguments that any particular spending is "wasteful", just cancel things they don't like.

 

[civilwarbuff]

We went through this already.





That is a GAO finding.
How much has been recovered?

That's the problem with federal programs. Just like with cockroaches you can't ever kill them all off.....

 

[Laodicean60]

They aren't. They are just pointing at things they don't like and calling it waste.

Is giving money to terrorist organizations waste?

 

[Hans Blaster]

Is giving money to terrorist organizations waste?

What terrorist organization?