Billionaire Elon Musk held an unprecedented top-level meeting at the
Pentagon on Friday and called for the prosecution of any
Defense Department officials who leak maliciously false information about his
visit. The 80 minute meeting with US Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth came after the New York Times reported that
Musk would be briefed on secret war plans for China
, something Musk and President Donald Trump both denied.
At the White House after the meeting with Musk,
Hegseth addressed the report. 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 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 at the Pentagon
. Trump also refuted the report. 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, you know, Elon has businesses in China
. Access to a closely guarded military plan would mark
a sharp expansion of Musk's role as the Trump adviser
who is spearheading efforts to cut US government spending.
Musk has several contracts with the Pentagon, and the
opportunities for his companies under Trump could drive billions of
dollars of revenue to them, including SpaceX. The
White House has previously said Musk will recuse himself if
any conflicts of interest arise between his business dealings and
his role in cutting federal government spending. Later,
in a letter to Hexeth, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren
and Tammy Duckworth demanded details on what information was shared
with Musk in the Pentagon meeting and why.