Special government employee Elon Musk visited the Pentagon Friday for a discussion on “innovation, efficiencies & smarter production,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — rejecting a New York Times report that the billionaire driving force of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would receive a classified briefing on war plans with China.
“Elon Musk is just coming over here for a visit,” Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell told “Fox & Friends” Friday morning, calling the Times report “egregious” and “fake.”
President Trump denied a report that the Pentagon planned to brief Elon Musk about how the US would fight in a conflict with China. REUTERSPresident Trump also denied the report during a press briefing in the Oval Office, saying he “wouldn’t want to show that to anybody.”
“We don’t want to have a potential war with China, but I can tell you, if we did, we’re very well equipped to handle it, but I don’t want to show that to anybody, but certainly you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much,” Trump said, noting that Musk has business ties to Beijing.
From the Oval, Hegseth accused the Times of printing the article “to undermine whatever relationship the Pentagon has with Elon Musk.”
“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,” the secretary said. The rest of that reporting was fake.”
”There was no war plans, there was no Chinese war plans. There was no secret plans. That’s not what we were doing.”
President Trump met China’s President Xi Jinping in 2019 at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan. REUTERS
Chinese troops marched past Tiananmen Square during a military parade in 2019. EPAHegseth was at the White House Friday to help Trump announce the US would launch the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet — to be named the “F-47,” in a nod to the 47th president.
A visibly jovial Musk left the Pentagon around 11 a.m., speaking animatedly with Hegseth and making an unintelligible joke mentioning the Space Force as the secretary walked him out the door.
During Musk’s visit, senior military officials provided an overview of various topics, but nothing classified was discussed as Musk does not have the clearance or required need-to-know in his DOGE role.
Musk has previously visited the Pentagon to discuss efficiency and how the Pentagon can slim down its civilian workforce and cut extraneous spending.
As Musk said goodbye to Hegseth, he asked the secretary to reach out if the Tesla and SpaceX CEO could “be helpful.”
