Elon Musk vs the NYT: Did a bombshell report spark a change in plans at the Pentagon?
Washington D.C.: President Donald Trump and senior advisor Elon Musk's war with the New York Times shows no sign of abating after the media juggernaut reported that the tech billionaire’s visit to the Pentagon on March 21, 2025, involved a briefing about the US military’s plans for a probable war in China.
Quite a few officials confirmed the development, the Times report added. However, Trump and other Pentagon personnel rejected that it was not the case with the former slamming the news outlet for ‘fake news’ on social media.
In a post on Truth Social, he said, “They [NYT] said, incorrectly, that Elon Musk is going to the Pentagon tomorrow to be briefed on any potential “war with China." How ridiculous?" China will not even be mentioned or discussed. How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue!!!”
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The president also discussed the matter with reporters at the White House, conceding that Musk has business interests in China, which would perhaps make him “susceptible".
Asserting that a businessman would not be told about top-secret information on a potential war with China, Trump remarked, “We don’t want to have a potential war with China, but I can tell you if we did, we’re very well-equipped to handle it, but I don’t want to show that to anybody but certainly you wouldn’t show it to a businessman.”
Did Musk’s Pentagon schedule change after the NYT report?
While it was not clear whether the briefing eventually took place, the reports certainly raises question on the ethics of giving Musk, the de facto head of the second Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), access to some of America’s most classified military secrets.
According to an ABC News report that cited government officials, Musk was indeed scheduled to meet the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the talks would feature China, among other things. But things changed after the Times’ explosive findings emerged.
The report added citing an official that the Tesla chief visited Pentagon as per schedule but instead of meeting with the joint chiefs, spoke with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others.
The meeting between the presidential advisor and the joint chiefs was set to be held at an unclassified level and attended by Sam Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, virtually, one official source said. It eventually did not happen and Musk and Hegseth also denied any such plans. The billionaire even called for the prosecution of those in the Pentagon who he said were leaking “maliciously false information” to the Times.
Hegseth also denied the China angle and said in an X post that the meeting was an informal one related to innovation, efficiencies and smarter production. However, The Wall Street Journal also confirmed that Musk was indeed scheduled to be briefed on a probable war with China.
Musk’s Pentagon visit under scrutiny
The Democrats also questioned Musk’s visit to the Pentagon and the reports about his planned access to plans for a hypothetical war with the Chinese. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth wrote to Hegseth seeking details on what transpired between the Pentagon and Musk and why. They said there was no legitimate national security or other rationale to share the information with the SpaceX CEO.
Another Democratic Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, also questioned with Musk’s visit to the Pentagon. The New York lawmaker, who is a senior member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, said on X that Musk is not elected and neither does he have any business anywhere near the Pentagon.
Musk’s involvement in war plans not surprising
Musk has several contracts with the Pentagon and under Trump, his companies, especially SpaceX, could earn billions in revenue. The president’s planned Golden Dome missile defense shield could be a major boost to SpaceX and Starlink (also led by Musk) since it would require sensors and satellites to track incoming missiles.
Besides, the Pentagon’s war plans are among the American military’s top secrets and if Musk’s presence was indeed related to talks on some of those secrets, it would only indicate that a new military-industrial-technological innovation nexus is shaping up.