Musk’s visit to the Pentagon raises questions about his access to sensitive files

The Pentagon and the War Plan for China: a Brief on Musk’s Business Relationships with China and the Issues of Conflicts of Interest

In addition, Musk has extensive business ties to the Pentagon and to China, raising a host of issues about possible conflicts of interest. Musk has extensive operations in China. The Pentagon gives billions of dollars to Musk’s company to launch military satellites.

The Pentagon was going to give a brief on the war plan for China to Musk this morning. It was going to be in a secure conference room called the tank, which is usually used to have very high-level military briefings with members of the Joint Chiefs or senior commanders. The idea that a civilian like Musk, who doesn’t belong in the chain of command, would receive any briefings in the Tank was alarming to some people.

Musk’s widespread access to government information through the DOGE has already caused multiple controversies.

The official also said that Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which includes China, was expected to take part virtually from Sri Lanka.

The Pentagon’s Briefing on the China War Plan: Analyzing the New York Times ‘Paradise on the CIA and the Pentagon’ by Elon Musk

The meeting place for the Pentagon’s briefing was normally used by the Joint Chiefs and was informally known as the tank. An official with the U.S. government spoke with NPR on condition of anonymity.

Musk also weighed in on X, the platform he owns, saying “The New York Times is pure propaganda. The Pentagon should prosecute those who are leaking false information to the NYT. They are going to be found.

Pete Hegseth said that they are looking forward to welcomingelonmusk to the Pentagon tomorrow. This meeting is not about ‘top secret China war plans’ according to the fake news. It’s a meeting about innovation and efficiency. Gonna be great!”

“The top-secret briefing that exists for the China war plan has about 20 to 30 slides that lay out how the United States would fight such a conflict,” the Times reported. “It covers the plan beginning with the indications and warning of a threat from China to various options on what Chinese targets to hit, over what time period, that would be presented to Mr. Trump for decisions, according to officials with knowledge of the plan.”

We are certain that this is what was scheduled. We had a few things that gave us confidence and our source was very strong. If Musk was going to come to the Pentagon to have a casual discussion, why would you keep it in the tank? What’s more, the main briefer for the originally scheduled meeting was the four-star admiral in charge of the Indo-Pacific area, Samuel Paparo — and he would be the wartime commander in the event of a conflict with China.

I called Eric Schmitt, a Times national security reporter, who kindly stepped into one of the few Pentagon hallways where you can actually get cell service, and asked him to bring us up to speed.