Pentagon changed course for Musk visit after report about him viewing China war plans: Officials

Tech billionaire Elon Musk was slated to go to the Pentagon on Friday and attend a gathering of the Joint Chiefs of Employees that might contact on China, amongst different issues, two United States officers confirmed to ABC Information — however that plan modified after The New York Occasions reported Musk could be briefed on potential China struggle plans.

Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday — however as an alternative of assembly with the Joint Chiefs, Musk met with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth and staffers, a U.S. official mentioned.

The assembly between Musk and the Joint Chiefs was to be on the unclassified stage and attended just about by Adm. Sam Paparo, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, one official mentioned. However a while between the publication of The New York Times story on Thursday and Musk’s go to to the Pentagon Friday morning, the go to was only a assembly with Hegseth.

The New York Occasions reported that Musk would obtain a briefing from senior navy leaders a few top-secret navy plan for potential struggle with China. The publication mentioned the assembly was canceled due to its preliminary report.

Musk, Hegseth and President Donald Trump denied the report — with Trump asserting that Musk wouldn’t be briefed on a struggle plan with China.

“I do not need to present that to anyone. However definitely, you would not present it to a businessman who helps us a lot. He is a fantastic patriot … However I definitely would not need — you already know, Elon has companies in China, and he could be inclined maybe to that. Nevertheless it was such a pretend story,” Trump instructed reporters within the Oval Workplace on Friday.

Hegseth mentioned Musk was on the Pentagon to speak about Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity.

“There was no struggle plans. There was no Chinese language struggle plans. There was no secret plans. That is not what we had been doing on the Pentagon,” Hegseth mentioned.

Musk arrived on the Pentagon simply earlier than 9 a.m. and remained in Hegseth’s workplace all through his go to.

The assembly of the Joint Chiefs of Employees did happen as scheduled, however Paparo didn’t be part of the assembly as beforehand scheduled. One of many officers mentioned the assembly of the Joint Chiefs of Employees within the within the convention room referred to 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 assembly in The Tank truly bought underway.

As Musk departed Hegseth’s workplace on Friday, he was requested by reporters how the assembly went and responded that “it is all the time a fantastic assembly.”

“I have been right here earlier than, you already know,” Musk added as each he and Hegseth walked collectively. Musk did go to the Pentagon in 2016 to fulfill with then-Protection Secretary Ash Carter.

Once they had been exterior the Pentagon, Hegseth and Musk shook arms and Musk was overhead to say, “If there’s something I can do to be useful, I would prefer to see you.”

Neither responded to questions at the moment about whether or not they had mentioned China or if was a categorized briefing.

Hegseth beforehand posted on X that the assembly was not about “China struggle plans,” however relatively described it as an “casual assembly about innovation, efficiencies & smarter manufacturing.”

Trump posted on his conservative social media platform that China wouldn’t be talked about or mentioned throughout the assembly.

Musk went as far as to recommend there needs to be prosecutions of anybody on the Pentagon who could have leaked info.

“They are going to be discovered,” Musk wrote on X.

ABC Information’ Justin Gomez and Chris Boccia contributed to this report.