Elon Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday for a meeting at the invitation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — after which President Donald Trump continued to assert that Musk was not briefed on a war plan with China.
A U.S. official told ABC News that Musk would attend a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that, among its topics, would touch on China. However, instead of meeting with the Joint Chiefs, Musk met with Hegseth and staffers.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that Musk would receive a briefing from senior military leaders about a top-secret military plan for potential war with China.
Musk, Hegseth and Trump denied the report. The New York Times says the meeting was canceled because of its report.
“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. He’s a great patriot … But I certainly wouldn’t want — you know, Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible perhaps to that. But it was such a fake story,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.
Hegseth said Musk was at the Pentagon to talk about Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“There was no war plans. There was no Chinese war plans. There was no secret plans. That’s not what we were doing at the Pentagon,” Hegseth said.
As he departed Hegseth’s office on Friday, Musk was asked by reporters how the meeting went and responded that “it’s always a great meeting.”
“I’ve been here before, you know,” Musk added as both he and Hegseth walked together. Musk did visit the Pentagon in 2016 to meet with then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
When they were outside the Pentagon, Hegseth and Musk shook hands and Musk was overhead to say, “If there’s anything I can do to be helpful, I’d like to see you.”
Neither responded to questions at that time about whether they had discussed China or if was a classified briefing.
Hegseth previously posted on X that the meeting was not about “China war plans,” but rather described it as an “informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.”
Trump posted on his conservative social media platform that China would not be mentioned or discussed during the meeting.
Musk went so far as to suggest there should be prosecutions of anyone at the Pentagon who may have leaked information.
“They will be found,” Musk wrote on X.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Chris Boccia contributed to this report.
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