President Trump on Friday denied that his administration would present billionaire Elon Musk particulars of the Pentagon’s planning for a possible conflict with China, citing Musk’s numerous enterprise dealings as a purpose to be further cautious with such data.
“I don’t want to show it to anybody. You’re talking about a potential war with China,” Trump instructed reporters within the Oval Workplace. “I don’t want anybody seeing potential war with China. But I can tell you if we did, we’re very well equipped to handle it.”
Trump additionally acknowledged if he have been to share plans for a conflict with China, he can be unlikely to indicate it to somebody with Musk’s background.
“You know, Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible perhaps to that.”
Musk did go to the Pentagon on Friday, the place he met for greater than an hour with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth. Trump and Hegseth mentioned the assembly was centered on innovation and chopping prices. Musk has been main the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), which has appeared to slash federal spending and the dimensions of the workforce.
“Elon Musk provides a lot of capabilities our government and our military rely on, and I’m grateful for that,” Hegseth mentioned within the Oval Workplace. “We welcomed him today to the Pentagon to talk about DOGE, to talk about efficiencies, to talk about innovations. It was a great informal conversation.”
Administration officers aggressively pushed again on a New York Instances report that Musk would obtain a briefing on the U.S. army’s plan for a attainable conflict with China. The Wall Road Journal revealed an analogous report.
Trump’s feedback have been an acknowledgment that Musk’s huge monetary pursuits may complicate his work with the federal government.
Musk is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. His corporations have billions of {dollars} price of presidency contracts, together with on the Pentagon, and he has vital monetary pursuits in China.
Critics of Musk’s involvement within the authorities have argued that the billionaire has a battle of curiosity due to the contracts his corporations have with the federal government. Trump administration officers, together with the president have come beneath scrutiny for selling Tesla merchandise and inventory in latest days.
Musk decried The New York Instances as “pure propaganda” and known as for people on the Pentagon leaking data to the information outlet to be prosecuted.
The Tesla CEO and the remainder of his workers at DOGE have been going to almost each authorities company on the lookout for methods to slash spending and lower the dimensions of the workforce. Trump has mentioned Cupboard secretaries must be those to find out which staff get lower, however that Musk has the authority to take motion if wanted.
