WASHINGTON: Billionaire Elon Musk took his campaign to cut the US federal government into uncharted waters on Friday (Mar 21), holding an unprecedented top-level meeting at the Pentagon and calling for the prosecution of any defence department officials leaking “maliciously false information” about his visit.
Musk, whose businesses have a number of defence department contracts, met US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for 80 minutes in his first such talks at the Pentagon, which is responsible for a large chunk of federal government spending. It was unclear whether US generals joined that meeting virtually.
The New York Times reported that Musk would be briefed on secret war plans for China, something Musk, Trump and others denied. Musk called the report “pure propaganda” and urged legal action against leakers.
“I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found,” he wrote on X before the Hegseth meeting.
At the White House after the meeting, Trump said he did not want to show the United States’ plans for a potential war with China to anybody and hinted at Musk’s potential conflict of interest.
“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,” Trump said. “Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that,” Trump said.
Standing next to Trump, Hegseth said he had an informal conversation with Musk which focused on innovation and efficiencies.
“There was no war plans, no Chinese war plans. There was no secret plans,” Hegseth said.
