Trump and Musk target several media outlets
U.S. President Donald Trump and his senior advisor Elon Musk have made posts targeting media outlets MSNBC, Reuters, and the Associated Press (AP).
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In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump stated, "MSNBC, known as MSDNC, is a threat to our democracy. A bunch of lies and distortions. There are bad people at the helm."
By changing the name of the MSNBC channel to "MSDNC," a reference to the Democratic National Convention (DNC), Trump implied that the channel is "pro-Democrat and reports with bias."
Trump's senior advisor, American billionaire Musk, also shared a typography design on his X account where the name of the British news agency Reuters was formed using the word "Lies."
In another post, Musk quoted a Reuters report about "threatening to shut down Starlink if Ukraine did not sign a valuable mineral deal," stating, "Reuters is lying. They are second only to Associated Propaganda (AP) in media lies."
CLAIMS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN PAYMENTS
Musk had previously alleged that Reuters received millions of dollars in payments from the U.S. government between 2018 and 2022.
Quoting a post based on a website that documents expenditures made by the U.S. government, Musk had stated, "Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the U.S. government for 'large-scale social deception.' They are total scammers."
Trump had also claimed that media outlets such as Reuters, Politico, and The New York Times were financially supported by federal agencies, asserting that these payments were intended to influence news content.