Elon Musk is set to receive a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday over top-secret U.S.-China war plans, The New York Times reported late Thursday.
The Times spoke with two U.S. officials who confirmed the scheduled meeting. A third official said the briefing would focus on China, while a fourth confirmed only that Musk – President Donald Trump’s top campaign donor and head of his Department of Government Efficiency – was lined up to be at the Pentagon on Friday.
Giving Musk, the world’s richest man, inside details “to some of the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets would be a dramatic expansion of his already extensive role as an adviser to President Trump and leader of his effort to slash spending and purge the government of people and policies they oppose,” according to the Times.
It also puts yet another spotlight on his conflicts of interests, the report noted, adding that in addition to his free range across the federal government, he continues to run businesses with deep government contracts.
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“In this case, Mr. Musk, the billionaire chief executive of both SpaceX and Tesla, is a leading supplier to the Pentagon and has extensive financial interests in China,” the report said. It added that “Pentagon war plans, known in military jargon as O-plans or operational plans, are among the military’s most closely guarded secrets.”
Any leaks to foreign countries could make the plans “far less likely to succeed,” according to the Times. Musk’s top-secret briefing is expected to consist of about 20 to 30 slides that lay out how the U.S. would respond militarily to a conflict with China.
“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,” the Times reported.
Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, raised concerns about Musk's access to the Times.
“Musk at a war-planning briefing?” he said. “Giving the CEO of one defense company unique access seems like this could be grounds for a contract protest and is a real conflict of interest.”