Trump cited Tesla’s CEO and business ties with China that could affect him.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on March 21 dismissed media reports about a US briefing that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is scheduled for a possible military conflict with China, saying he will not show such intelligence to businessmen or anyone else.
Mask attended a morning meeting in the pentagon that lasted about 80 minutes. The New York Times cited two anonymous US officials who said Musk would receive a classified briefing with top military officials about the US plan for a war with China.
Trump on Friday called the report a “fake story.”
“I don’t want to show it to anyone,” he told reporters in the oval office. “We don’t want to have a potential war with China, but if that’s the case, we’re very prepared to handle it.
“But I don’t want to show it to anyone, but certainly you don’t show it to the businessmen who are helping us so much.
“Elon has business in China and he’s probably more susceptible to it.”
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Trump said he immediately called his chief of staff, Susie Wills and Hegzes. They looked at the news report to see if there was any truth in the story, and the two described it as “silly.”
“Eron was there today to deal with the costs,” Trump said.
Standing next to Trump, Hegses repeated the president. He said the report was intended to “damage the Pentagon’s relationship with Elon Musk.” He called him a “patriot” and a “innovator.”
Elon Musk and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth laugh with this screen grab that got the Washington Pentagon from the video on March 21, 2025. irees ali/reuters
“Elon Musk offers a lot of the capabilities the government and the military relies on, and I’m grateful for that,” the defense secretary told reporters at a joint briefing.
“We welcomed him to the Pentagon today, talked about Doge, talked about efficiency, talked about innovation, it was a great, informal conversation.
“There was no war plan, there was no Chinese war plan. There was no secret plan.”
The presence of mask business in China has been scrutinized amid the US government’s cost-cutting initiative, which has led to drastic changes to the federal government.
Musk arrived in the car for the Pentagon meeting on Friday. He joked with Hegzes on his departure and said the consultation was successful.
He told the New York Times on social media platform X early Friday that he was looking forward to “prosecuting pentagonal people leaking malicious and false information,” adding, “they will be found.”
