The world’s richest man is reportedly slated to receive a briefing on the military’s plans for a potential war with China, despite his deep financial ties to the country.
Tesla boss Elon Musk will sit for a top-secret presentation on the U.S.’s operational plan for conflict with China, plans that China could use to bolster its defenses if it got word of specifics, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Though high-ups at the Department of Defense, including Secretary Pete Hegseth, tried to shoot down reports that China will come up at the meeting, multiple Pentagon sources told the Times the subject will indeed be discussed at the meeting, set to take place in a secure conference room at the Pentagon.
Musk, the owner of SpaceX, one of the country’s largest defense contractors, could stand to benefit from a strategic look at the country’s defense plans. But it’s far from his only conflict of interest. Musk’s ties with China could make his briefing a liability.
China is also home to a Tesla production facility responsible for more than half of the company’s cars produced in 2024. Musk and Tesla are still on the hook for a $1.4 billion loan from the country’s government to build that factory.
At least one ex-defense official, former Lt. General Russel Honoré, sounded alarm bells late last year on Musk’s potential access to top-secret intelligence around China.
“Musk’s business dealings in China could require him to hand over sensitive classified information, learned either through his business interests or his proximity to [then] President-elect Donald Trump,” Honoré wrote.
Reporting on the planned meeting triggered President Donald Trump to refute the story in a post to Truth Social on Thursday night, claiming “China will not even be mentioned or discussed” in the briefing. On Friday morning, he circled back to raise doubts about the suggestion that Musk would “spill the beans” to China because of his business interests.
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