Trump blocked billionaire buddy Elon Musk from attending secret Pentagon briefing on China: Report
WASHINGTON, DC: Looks like Elon Musk can’t stroll into a Pentagon war room anymore without raising presidential eyebrows.
President Donald Trump reportedly blocked his own right-hand tech mogul from attending a hush-hush Pentagon briefing about war plans with China.
Trump reportedly smelled something fishy and wasn't about to hand out state secrets to a billionaire with factories in Shanghai.
According to a bombshell report from Axios, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was originally slated to attend a top-level national security briefing on March 21. But once word of the meeting leaked to the press, Trump snapped.
“What the f**K is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn’t go,” Trump allegedly fumed, per a top official who spoke to the outlet.
Elon Musk's Pentagon meeting happened, but not the way it was planned
Despite the uproar, a meeting still went ahead at the Pentagon on March 21 between Elon Musk and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But China wasn’t on the agenda anymore.
The situation exploded after The New York Times ran a story on March 20 claiming that Musk was scheduled to be briefed on potential war scenarios with China. That’s when Trump jumped on Truth Social to label it “Fake News.”
“They said, incorrectly, that Elon Musk is going to the Pentagon tomorrow to be briefed on any potential ‘war with China,’” Trump posted. “How ridiculous? China will not even be mentioned or discussed. How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue!!!”
Following the scaled-back meeting, Trump offered reporters a more buttoned-up explanation at the White House. “I certainly wouldn’t want, you know—Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that,” he said. “But it was such a fake story.”
Another insider summed it up even more bluntly. “POTUS still very much loves Elon, but there are some red lines,” the official told Axios. “Elon has a lot of business in China, and he has good relations there, and this briefing just wasn’t the right thing.”
Leaks, suspensions, and media backlash
The White House wasn’t just fuming about Elon Musk’s attendance — they were furious about the leak itself. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly suspended two Pentagon officials while investigators dig into who spilled the beans to The New York Times.
Trump, meanwhile, unleashed his trademark fury toward the media.
“It’s such a dishonest newspaper, it’s such garbage,” he said of the Times. “They have fake sources, or they don’t have sources. I think they make most of it up.”
Trump insisted the Times’s report was meant to "undermine whatever relationship the Pentagon has with Elon Musk.” He said that he checked in with his aides about the article and was told, “This is ridiculous.”
But The New York Times stood by its reporting. “We stand by our reporting and will continue to pursue the facts and share them fully and fairly with the public,” the newspaper said in a statement.
“Our job is to report news that is in the public interest,” a spokeswoman added. “Elon Musk is the chief executive of both SpaceX and Tesla, and a leading supplier to the Pentagon, and has extensive financial interests in China. The Pentagon’s plans to brief him on confidential military secrets related to China raised clear conflicts of interest.”
Why was Elon Musk at Pentagon in the first place?
Just days before the drama, Donald Trump had tried to clarify that Elon Musk wasn’t heading to the Pentagon to play war games — he was there in a different role entirely.
“He’s there for DOGE, not there for China,” Trump said, referencing the Department of Government Efficiency. “And if you ever mentioned China, he would walk out of the room.”
