Updated March 21, 2025 at 12:40 PM ET
Elon Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday. But questions about why ignited a fresh storm of controversy surrounding his access to sensitive government information.
The New York Times, citing unnamed officials, reported that Musk would receive a briefing on U.S. plans for any potential conflict with China, which involve some of the military's most closely guarded secrets.
"The top-secret briefing that exists for the China war plan has about 20 to 30 slides that lay out how the United States would fight such a conflict," the Times reported. "It covers the plan beginning with the indications and warning of a threat from China to various options on what Chinese targets to hit, over what time period, that would be presented to Mr. Trump for decisions, according to officials with knowledge of the plan."
However, President Trump and members of his administration immediately pushed back on social media.
"How ridiculous. China will not even be mentioned or discussed," Trump wrote.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday night on X: "We look forward to welcoming @elonmusk 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!"
Musk also weighed in on X, the platform he owns, 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."
The Pentagon briefing was set to take place in a secure meeting place normally used by the Joint Chiefs, known informally as "the tank." This is according to a U.S. official, who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity.
The official also said that Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which includes China, was expected to take part virtually from Sri Lanka.
Pentagon officials said the briefing would focus on China but would only contain unclassified information.
But, in the end, none of that appears to have happened. A Pentagon official who was not authorized to speak publicly said that Musk did not go to "the tank" but instead met with Hegseth in his office. It's unclear if the apparent change of plans was in reaction to the news coverage about Musk and the purpose of the visit. Appearing at the Oval Office in front of reporters later in the day, both Trump and Hegseth repeated their condemnations about the news reports, with Hegseth saying the stories were "meant to sort of undermine whatever relationship the Pentagon has with Elon Musk."
Musk's widespread access to government information through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has already sparked multiple controversies.
His visit to the Pentagon raises additional questions. One is about what sort of national security information is being made available to Musk or members of his DOGE team.
In addition, Musk has extensive business ties to the Pentagon and to China, raising a host of issues about possible conflicts of interest. As the head of Tesla, Musk has extensive operations in China. And as the head of SpaceX, Musk and his company receive billions of dollars from the Pentagon to launch military satellites.
The U.S. military and Ukraine's military both rely extensively on SpaceX's Starlink satellite communications network.
NPR's Tom Bowman contributed to this report.
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