Tech billionaire Elon Musk was slated to visit the Pentagon on Friday and attend a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that would touch on China, among other things, two United States officials confirmed to ABC News — but that plan changed after The New York Times reported Musk would be briefed on potential China war plans. Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday — but instead of meeting with the Joint Chiefs, Musk met with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and staffers, a U.S. official said. The meeting between Musk and the Joint Chiefs was to be at the unclassified level and attended virtually by Adm. Sam Paparo, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, one official said. But some time between the publication of The New York Times story on Thursday and Musk’s visit to the Pentagon Friday morning, the visit turned into just a meeting with Hegseth.
The New York Times reported that Musk would receive a briefing from senior military leaders about a top-secret military plan for potential war with China. The publication said the meeting was canceled because of its initial report. Musk, Hegseth and President Donald Trump denied the report — with Trump asserting that Musk would not be briefed on a war plan with China. “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. He’s a great patriot … 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,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.
Hegseth said Musk was at the Pentagon to talk about Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “There was no war plans. There was no Chinese war plans. There was no secret plans. That’s not what we were doing at the Pentagon,” Hegseth said.
Musk arrived at the Pentagon just before 9 a.m. and remained in Hegseth’s office for the duration of his visit.
The meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff did take place as scheduled, but Paparo did not join the meeting as previously scheduled. One of the officials said the meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the in the conference room known as “The Tank” went on for about two hours. Musk left the Pentagon at 10:21 a.m. — about 20 minutes after it appeared that the meeting in The Tank actually got underway. As Musk departed Hegseth’s office on Friday, he was asked by reporters how the meeting went and responded that “it’s always a great meeting.” “I’ve been here before, you know,” Musk added as both he and Hegseth walked together. Musk did visit the Pentagon in 2016 to meet with then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
When they were outside the Pentagon, Hegseth and Musk shook hands and Musk was overhead to say, “If there’s anything I can do to be helpful, I’d like to see you.” Neither responded to questions at that time about whether they had discussed China or if was a classified briefing. Hegseth previously posted on X that the meeting was not about “China war plans,” but rather described it as an “informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.”
Trump posted on his conservative social media platform that China would not be mentioned or discussed during the meeting. Musk went so far as to suggest there should be prosecutions of anyone at the Pentagon who may have leaked information. “They will be found,” Musk wrote on X.
