Why the Pentagon Scuttled Its Briefing of Musk on War Plans

 

Why the Pentagon Scuttled Its Briefing of Musk on War Plans

 

“You wouldn’t show it to a businessman,” President Trump said in denying that Elon Musk was to be briefed on top-secret plans in the event of war with China.

 

Jess Bidgood

By Jess Bidgood

March 21, 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/us/politics/musk-trump-pentagon-china.html

 

Over the past 24 hours, my colleagues’ report that Elon Musk was set to be briefed on the military’s top-secret plans in the event of war with China has shaken Washington. It even seemed to take President Trump by surprise.

 

Musk’s planned visit to a secure room in the Pentagon was called off after The Times published its article on the visit, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

 

This morning, Trump denied the briefing had been planned. But he also made clear that he thought Musk should not have access to such war plans.

 

“Certainly, you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much,” Trump said. He added, “Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible perhaps to that.”

 

I called Eric Schmitt, a Times national security reporter, who kindly stepped into one of the few Pentagon hallways where you can actually get cell service, and asked him to bring us up to speed.

 

JB: Let’s start at the beginning. What did you learn yesterday about what was originally planned?

ES: The Pentagon was scheduled to give a briefing to Musk this morning on the classified war plan for China. We were told it was going to be in this secure conference room called the Tank, which is typically where you’ll have very high-level military briefings with members of the Joint Chiefs or senior commanders. The idea that a civilian like Elon Musk, who’s not in the chain of command, would be getting any briefing in the Tank — much less on highly sensitive war plans for China — was certainly unusual, and it was alarming to some people.

 

The administration has pushed back on your reporting. But you and the rest of the team are standing by the story.

 

We’re absolutely sure this is what was scheduled. There were a couple of things that gave us confidence, besides our sourcing being very strong. If Musk were really coming to the Pentagon for a more casual discussion, why would you hold it in the Tank? What’s more, the main briefer for the originally scheduled meeting was the four-star admiral in charge of the Indo-Pacific area, Samuel Paparo — and he would be the wartime commander in the event of a conflict with China.

 

What ended up happening this morning?

Musk arrived at about 9, on schedule. He went up to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office for what we were told would be about a 30-minute meeting. There were still tentative plans to have a Tank meeting at 9:30. Then it turned into 9:45 and 10. We were seeing top military officials moving between Hegseth’s office, on the third floor, and the Tank, which is one floor below. Shortly after 10, all the aides outside the Tank dispersed, and we were told that the Tank meeting with Musk was definitely off.

 

We saw Musk leave — he ignored our questions — and later, President Trump appeared in his office with Hegseth and again said our story wasn’t true. But we learned that, after our story published, the White House basically scrapped the original briefing, the war plan briefing, and went to Plan B, which was the more vanilla version.

 

In his office today, Trump did something new: He acknowledged that Musk has potential conflicts of interest when it comes to China. What did you make of that?

 

It was kind of revealing in terms of how Trump thinks about Musk’s role, because he praised Musk and how valuable an adviser he is. But then he stopped, just to point out pretty clearly where Musk’s influence ends, and what he should not be able to be doing. He seemed to be drawing some boundaries around what Elon Musk could or could not do, which he really hasn’t done very much at all up to this point.

 

In his remarks, Trump gave some indication that he didn’t seem to know that this briefing, as it was originally proposed, had been offered to Musk. He said he called his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and Hegseth to ask about the reports when he saw them. It’s not like he was clued in ahead of time.

 

What does this episode tell us about the White House, the Pentagon and Elon Musk?

It’s raised questions about the relationship between Musk’s operation and the Pentagon. Secretary Hegseth has really bent over backward to publicly welcome the DOGE staff in. Yesterday, he posted a short video saying how DOGE, working with Defense staffers, had identified $580 million in contracts that they could cut. So he’s really tried to embrace the spirit of Musk and trying to win over Musk. For what purpose, we don’t really know. Is it to seriously help him fulfill his pledge to cut? Is it to protect some of the programs he might want to preserve?

 

It also raises questions about the communication between an inexperienced defense secretary, the White House and Musk. Are they all on the same page?

 

Our conversation was edited for length and clarity.