Trump says Elon Musk won’t get briefing on Pentagon’s China war plans

The US president says his billionaire adviser visited the Department of Defence in his capacity with DOGE, and not for China.

US President Donald Trump said Elon Musk had not been shown theoretical war plans with China. Picture: AFP

President Trump said Elon Musk wouldn’t receive a sensitive briefing at the Pentagon on a plan for potential war with China because of his financial ties to Beijing.

“Certainly you wouldn’t show that to a businessman,” Trump told reporters Friday. “Elon has businesses in China,” he continued, adding that showing him the war plans would be improper. Musk went to the Defense Department in his capacity as the architect of the administration’s government efficiency efforts, Trump said, and was “not there for China.”

Trump acknowledged that he contacted White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shortly after news reports Thursday that a briefing on a potential war plan had been planned for Friday.

Trump’s comments came shortly after Musk visited the Pentagon Friday morning. China was one of several topics discussed during the visit, one of the officials said, as was technology. Musk arrived shortly before 9am in Washington and left about 90 minutes later.

Musk was originally scheduled to receive a briefing on top-secret plans for a potential war with China, but US defence officials later said he would sit for an unclassified meeting.

“It’s always a great meeting,” Musk said as he left. “I’ve been here before, you know.”

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is among those expected to be at the briefing. Picture: Getty Images

Outside the Pentagon, Musk and Hegseth shook hands as Musk told him, “If there’s anything I can do to be helpful, I’d like to see you.”

Minutes later, when a reporter asked what Hegseth and Musk discussed, the billionaire responded: “Why should I tell you?”

That Musk would sit for any China-related meeting at all underscored the potential conflicts of interest for Musk, which Trump appeared to acknowledge in his comments, as well as his expansive role in the new administration. It could give him as the head of Tesla, which relies on China for car production, and SpaceX, a US defence contractor, access to sensitive military secrets unavailable to business competitors.

Musk, according to one person familiar, was going to receive the top-secret briefing on China because he asked for one. He has a security clearance but isn’t in the military chain of command or known to be a military adviser to Trump.

Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow for US-China competition at the Hudson Institute in Washington, said Pentagon leadership might be trying to protect themselves against Musk cutting sensitive military programs. “But they don’t need to give Musk the full briefing to avoid that outcome,” he said.

Specific details of the US war plans for China aren’t known and are only discussed publicly by Defense Department officials and senior officers in the broadest terms. The Pentagon maintains operational plans for many potential adversaries and updates them regularly.

Adm. Sam Paparo, the head of Indo-Pacific Command, said last month in remarks at a defence forum in Hawaii that the US has “war-winning advantages” in any possible conflict with China in space and cyber capabilities, as well as a “generational advantage” in submarines.

The New York Times earlier reported that Musk would be briefed on China.

Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, has taken a growing interest in US national security policy. The visit was Musk’s first known appearance at the Pentagon this year.

He has weighed in recently on defence acquisitions, calling on the Pentagon to stop buying Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jet fighters and to shift to a large fleet of drones. “Manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway,” he posted to X in November. “Will just get pilots killed.”

President Donald Trump speaks as an image of an F-47 sixth-generation fighter jet is displayed during an event in the Oval Office. Picture: AP

Lockheed Martin is one of Musk’s biggest competitors in space launch.

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.

Musk has made positive comments about China in recent years, leading Beijing to hope he could be a conduit to Trump. In 2023, Musk said he was “kind of pro-China” during a conversation about whether Beijing would be helpful in writing global rules about artificial intelligence.

“I have some vested interests in China but honestly, I think China is underrated and I think the people of China are really awesome and there’s a lot of positive energy there,” he said.

Musk has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close partner of China, the country that has supported Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. During one of their conversations, Putin asked Musk not to activate a Starlink internet satellite above Taiwan as a favour to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Top US officials in both parties have warned that China is the greatest danger to American security. China has increasingly threatened Taiwan, working toward what Western intelligence officials see as a target of being ready to invade by 2027, potentially drawing the US into a regional conflict.

The Wall Street Journal