US President Donald Trump has denied a report that Elon Musk will be briefed about the US military’s top-secret plan for a possible war with China.
The report, by The New York Times, said that Musk – the billionaire business mogul now overseeing the slashing of US government personnel and spending programmes deemed “wasteful” – was due to be briefed by the Pentagon on Friday morning about the plan for any war that could potentially break out with China.
The Pentagon confirmed that Musk would visit on Friday, but Trump put up a post on Truth Social late on Thursday night that said: “China will not even be mentioned or discussed.”
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Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said in a post on X that the meeting would be “about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.”
A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the briefing for Musk would be attended by senior US military officials in the Pentagon and would be an overview on a number of different topics, including China.
According to the New York Times report, the briefing would include 20 to 30 slides that lay out how the United States would fight in a conflict with China. The newspaper cited two US officials it did not identify.
It said the Wall Street Journal had also confirmed that.
Possible reasons for briefing
The paper explained that Musk and his cost cutters from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “may need to know what weapons systems the Pentagon plans to use in a fight with China.”
Musk has already urged the Pentagon to stop buying expensive F-35 fighter jets, posting on X, his social-media site, in November that “Manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones … Will just get pilots killed.”
Other analysts have also debated whether America should be funding aircraft carriers that cost billions of dollars to run.
The Wall Street Journal said: “Musk recently made an unannounced visit to the National Security Agency, an intelligence agency focused on communications intercepts, to discuss operations and staff reductions. He was also involved in dismantling the US Agency for International Development and folding its remaining functions into the State Department.”
Starlink satellites, Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’
Meanwhile, Musk’s company SpaceX makes and launches Starlink satellites that are used for data and communications services from space, which could be targeted by China in the event of a war.
Trump has also proposed building a space-based missile defence system called ‘Golden Dome’ against possible missile threats and signed an executive order recently for the Pentagon to begin working on that.
That system, described as a US version of Israel’s Iron Dome, is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars.
A senior US Defence official said this week that they are “focused on meeting the president’s request for the Golden Dome while realigning also to meet Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s priorities.”
Steven Morani, the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Undersecretary, said they are determining how to shift people, resources and priorities toward providing better support directly to the warfighter.
“[We’re] looking at ways to streamline and remove some red tape,” he said. Part of that includes looking at the department’s real estate portfolio and reducing or eliminating what is not needed.”
Conflicts of interest
Reuters said access to the US military’s closely-guarded China plan would mark a sharp expansion of Musk’s role as a Trump adviser who has spearheaded efforts to cut US government spending, because of the government’s $36.5 trillion national deficit, which now requires annual debt repayments of nearly $1 trillion.
It would also fuel questions about conflicts of interest for Musk, who as the head of Tesla and SpaceX has business interests in China and with the Pentagon.
The White House has previously said Musk will recuse himself if any conflicts of interest arise between his business dealings and his role in cutting federal government spending.
Washington and Beijing have had tense relations for years over differences ranging from fentanyl, access to technology, trade tariffs and cybersecurity to TikTok, Taiwan, Hong Kong, human rights and the origins of Covid-19.
- Reuters with additional inputs and editing by Jim Pollard
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