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Elon Musk’s deliberate go to to the Pentagon sparks controversy : NPR


President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk converse to the press on the White Home on March 11

Mandel Ngan/AFP through Getty Pictures


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Mandel Ngan/AFP through Getty Pictures

Elon Musk is meant to go to the Pentagon on Friday. However what he’ll be doing there has ignited a recent storm of controversy surrounding his entry to delicate authorities info.

The New York Occasions, citing unnamed officers, reported that Musk would obtain a briefing on U.S. plans for any potential battle with China, which contain a few of the army’s most intently guarded secrets and techniques.

“The highest-secret briefing that exists for the China warfare plan has about 20 to 30 slides that lay out how the USA would struggle such a battle,” the Occasions reported. “It covers the plan starting with the indications and warning of a risk from China to numerous choices on what Chinese language targets to hit, over what time interval, that will be offered to Mr. Trump for choices, in response to officers with data of the plan.”

Nonetheless, President Trump and members of his administration instantly pushed again on social media.

“How ridiculous. China is not going to even be talked about or mentioned,” Trump wrote.

Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated Thursday night time on X:X “We sit up for welcoming @elonmusk
to the Pentagon tomorrow. However the faux information delivers once more — that is NOT a gathering about ‘prime secret China warfare plans.’ It is an off-the-cuff assembly about innovation, efficiencies & smarter manufacturing. Gonna be nice!”

Musk additionally weighed in on X, the platform he owns, saying “The New York Occasions is pure propaganda. Additionally, I sit up for the prosecutions of these on the Pentagon who’re leaking maliciously false info to NYT. They are going to be discovered.”

The Pentagon briefing was set to happen in a safe assembly place usually utilized by the Joint Chiefs, identified informally as “the tank.” That is in response to a U.S. official, who spoke to NPR on situation of anonymity.

The official additionally stated that Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which incorporates China, will participate nearly from Sri Lanka.

Pentagon officers stated the briefing would concentrate on China however would solely comprise unclassified info.

Musk’s widespread entry to authorities info by way of the Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, has already sparked a number of controversies.

His go to to the Pentagon raises extra questions. One is about what kind of nationwide safety info is being made accessible to Musk or members of his DOGE group.

As well as, Musk has intensive enterprise ties to the Pentagon and to China, elevating a number of points about potential conflicts of curiosity. As the pinnacle of Tesla, Musk has intensive operations in China. And because the head of SpaceX, Musk and his firm obtain billions of {dollars} from the Pentagon to launch army satellites.

The U.S. army and Ukraine’s army each rely extensively on SpaceX’s Starlink satellite tv for pc communications community.

NPR’s Tom Bowman contributed to this report.

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