President Donald Trump said he would not share sensitive military plans for a possible war with China with Elon Musk, one of his top allies in the White House.
“I don’t want to show it to anybody,” Trump said when questioned by reporters Friday morning. “You know, you’re talking about a potential war with China.”
“But certainly, you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much. He’s a great patriot. He’s paying a big price for helping us cut costs, and he’s doing a great job,” Trump said about Musk. “He’s finding tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse. But I certainly wouldn’t want, you know, Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that, but it was such a fake story.”
Musk’s top job in the Trump administration is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to reduce the federal workforce drastically and curb government spending. However, Musk’s Tesla car business has close ties to China, where the cars are manufactured.
Before the remarks were delivered at the Oval Office, the Trump administration denied reports from the New York Times that Musk would be included in a “top secret” briefing on the Defense Department’s war plans for China.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who also appeared by Trump’s side in the Oval Office, took to social media to confirm Musk would visit the Pentagon for “an informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.”
The president did say, “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.”
Trump went on to call the New York Times “just as fake as CNN and MSDNC,” a reference to MSNBC and the Democratic National Committee. He also called the outlet a “dishonest organization.”
“And anybody read that story, people laughed at that story. Who would do such a thing?” Trump added.
Trump said he called his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and Hegseth after seeing the reports.
TRUMP AND HEGSETH DENY MUSK WILL RECEIVE ‘TOP SECRET’ CHINA BRIEFING BUT CONFIRM PENTAGON VISIT
“I said, ‘Is there any truth to that?’ And they said it’s ridiculous. No, he’s over there to talk about costs,” Trump said. “But Elon was over there today to address costs. DOGE, thing called DOGE, which you’ve heard about.”
“It was meant to sort of undermine whatever relationship the Pentagon has with Elon Musk,” Hegseth said about the New York Times reporting. “Elon Musk is a patriot. Elon Musk is an innovator. Elon Musk provides a lot of capabilities our government and our military rely on, and I’m grateful for that. We welcomed him today to the Pentagon to talk about DOGE, to talk about efficiencies, to talk about innovations.”
