Trump admin denies Elon Musk will get exclusive China briefing after anon officials leak plans

After a report from the New York Times claimed, based on anonymous sources, that Elon Musk was going to get access to a "top-secret" briefing about a possible war with China, the Trump administration has derided the newspaper and said that the report is false. On Thursday, the outlet released the report, headlined, "Musk Set to Get Access to Top-Secret US Plan for Potential War With China," and cited two anonymous sources, claiming they were US officials.  

President Donald Trump subsequently wrote on Truth Social, "'Elon Musk will be briefed by the Pentagon about the USA’s top secret plans against China should there be a War,' according to the Failing New York Times, one of the worst and most purposely inaccurate newspapers anywhere in the World. Their FAKE concept for this story is that because Elon does some business in China, that he is very conflicted and would immediately go to top Chinese officials and 'spill the beans.'" 

Musk responded to Trump's post on X, saying, "The New York Times is pure propaganda. Also, I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found." 

Additionally, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote about the report, "This is 100% Fake News. Just brazenly & maliciously wrong. Elon Musk is a patriot. We are proud to have him at the Pentagon." 

According to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Musk will be attending a meeting at the Pentagon, however, it was unrelated to China or wartime. "We look forward to welcoming Elon Musk to the Pentagon tomorrow. But the fake news delivers again — this is NOT a meeting about “top secret China war plans.” It’s an informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production. Gonna be great!" Hegseth has been making cuts to the Defense Department budget.

The outlet claimed that the reported meeting would "bring into sharp relief the questions about Mr. Musk’s conflicts of interest as he ranges widely across the federal bureaucracy while continuing to run businesses that are major government contractors. In this case, Mr. Musk, the billionaire chief executive of both SpaceX and Tesla, is a leading supplier to the Pentagon and has extensive financial interests in China." 

The report added that Musk would get access to the Pentagon's "O-plans," or the operational plans, which are heavily guarded in the military and if learned by a foreign power, could be taken advantage of.  

Human Events host Jack Posobiec posted in response to the report, "Pentagon staff are leaking classified information about the Trump Admin to the NYT. Will these leakers be prosecuted?"

The headline from the New York Times was later changed to say, "Pentagon Set Up Briefing for Musk on Potential War With China," but the text highlighted that the alleged meeting would have set up a conflict of interest for Musk as some of his companies are contracted for defense by the US.