In a sign of US President Donald Trump pulling back Elon Musk’s overreach, the President has acknowledged his possible conflict of interest after his reported briefing on US war plans for China was scrapped.
“Certainly, you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much. Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible perhaps to that”, Trump told reporters on Friday after the cancelation.
The world’s richest man and a Trump benefactor to the tune of millions, Musk has big business interests in China, which is a hub for his Tesla car manufacture.
Some of the several companies he owns have contracts with the Defence department.
About the war plans, Trump said, “I don’t want to show it to anybody. You know you’re talking about a potential war with China”.
“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”, he added.
The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times had reported independently that according to officials Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, was to receive a classified briefing on the US military’s plans for a war with China.
Trump, the White House, and the Pentagon denied such a meeting was scheduled.
Even as he said that such information should not be shared with Musk, Trump called the reports “fake”.
According to the two newspapers, Musk had been scheduled to meet with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Admiral Christopher Grady, the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of the Indo-Pacific Command in the “Tank”, a room with extra high security against snooping, in the military headquarters, the Pentagon, for the briefing.
However, when Musk went to the Pentagon on Friday morning, he met with Hegseth only in his office for over an hour.
The newspapers said that the meeting was changed from classified to unclassified following the reports.
Musk told reporters afterwards, “It was a great meeting”.
When reporters asked Hegseth what they discussed, he shot back. “Why should I tell you”?
But later at the White House, he said the meeting was “fantastic” and “Elon Musk is a patriotic American and I appreciate him”.
The Defence Department said in a news release, “Officials said the two men discussed innovation, efficiency, and smarter production”.
But it added that according to officials, it “was not related to his efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency but was rather the result of a personal invitation by Hegseth for Musk to visit the department’s headquarters”.
One of the interpretations put forward by the newspapers as the rationale for a briefing on China war plans was that it was to ensure that Musk’s cost-cutting agenda does not erode US ability to face Beijing by making him aware of its needs.
Musk’s overreach has led to confrontations with other leaders and Trump had to intervene.
After Musk had shut down USAID, the international assistance arm of the State Department and complained that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had not fired enough workers, they had a tense confrontation at a Cabinet meeting.
Trump had them both over for a private dinner to smooth things over between them.
When Musk demanded that all federal employees email him five things they did the previous week or be fired, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel told their staff to ignore it.
Trump explained it away saying, “They don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon. They’re just saying there are some people that you don’t want to really have them tell you what they were working on last week”.
