March 21 (UPI) — Elon Musk will visit the Pentagon on Friday amid reports that he will be briefed Friday about any plans the U.S. military has about war with China, which the Trump administration says otherwise.
The Pentagon is scheduled to inform Musk about conflict with China, The New York Times first reported, with NBC News and The Washington Post also reporting the meeting was to take place, citing sources familiar with the matter.
NBC News reported Friday that a meeting was to happen, but that the session will be unclassified in nature, and that defense officials whom NBC News contacted couldn’t confirm the veracity of the NYT report.
The Washington Post reported that the briefing with Musk was scheduled by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth according to an unnamed U.S. official, who said the meeting’s subject matter would be unclassified and focus on defense issues and Musk’s work with DOGE.
According to the NYT, the top secret information that Musk would receive includes approximately 20 to 30 slides that explain how the United States would fight China during conflict, such as how the United States would recognize a threat, and how strikes against China would play out and what options President Donald Trump would have at his disposal.
The meeting is also slated for a secure conference room known as The Tank, where high-level meetings of members of the Joint Chiefs, their senior staff and visiting military commanders take place, NYT reported.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell posted to X Thursday that The New York Times’ story is “fake news,” and “just brazenly [and] maliciously wrong” but the Defense Department “is excited to welcome Elon Musk to the Pentagon on Friday. He was invited by Secretary Hegseth and is just visiting.”
Trump and Hegseth also denied that Musk would be briefed on China.
“Elon is not being briefed on anything China by the department of war!!!” Mr. Trump posted to Truth Social early Friday.
Hegseth posted to to the official secretary of defense X account that “The NYT should immediately retract this fake narrative” and to his personal X page that he and other Pentagon officials “look forward to welcoming” Musk to the Pentagon and that it’s not about military plans involving China but rather an “informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies [and] smarter production.”
Musk posted to X Friday that “I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT,” and that “they will be found.”
