The Trump administration is denying reports that the billionaire DOGE chief was set to be briefed on the possibility of war with China, where he maintains deep business ties.

White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk walks to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) on March 9, 2025 in Washington, DC.Samuel Corum/Getty Images

The denials are telling. After reports emerged that Elon Musk would be briefed at the Pentagon on a secret plan for a potential war with China, there was swift and ferocious pushback from him, Donald Trump, and the rest of the administration. “The story is completely untrue!!!” the president posted, lamenting that the “discredited media can make up such lies.” Pete Hegseth, the Defense secretary, confirmed that the Pentagon would host Musk Friday, but said that it would be an “informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.”

“Gonna be great!” Hegseth added, hitting out at the “fake news.”

Musk took things further, as he often does, not only bashing the New York Times as “pure propaganda,” but threatening the “prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT.”

“They will be found,” Musk warned.

Why so defensive? Isn’t Musk a “great patriot” who is doing a “fantastic job” in his government role, as Trump has said?

In the fiery rebuttals, there is a tacit acknowledgment of how explosive and alarming the story is: Here is the world’s richest man—a top defense contractor to the United States government whose vast business empire and ungodly wealth relies on his deep connections to China—reportedly gaining access to sensitive military secrets through his nebulous administration position. The conflicts of interest are extraordinary, even in a Trump government rife with them.

Beyond the ethical issues—which one imagines aren’t of much concern to the likes of Trump and Musk—there are the untold dangers posed by the erratic tech tycoon’s access. It could jeopardize some of the Pentagon’s most sensitive secrets, and underscores the extent of the unelected billionaire’s power in the US government.

He’s used that authority, so far, to execute draconian cuts to the federal workforce—including at the Pentagon—and to decimate government agencies, concentrating even more power with Trump and his inner circle. As the Times suggested, it’s possible that a Pentagon briefing—whether on China, as originally reported, or “innovation,” as Hegseth put it—was part of that so-called “efficiency” effort: “To trim the Pentagon budget in a responsible way,” the Times reported, “they may need to know what weapons systems the Pentagon plans to use in a fight with China.”

Of course, there’s been nothing “responsible” about the way Musk has gone about his work. Wielding his gilded chainsaw, the DOGE head has been an agent of chaos in the US government. The notion of such a figure accessing such sensitive information is as appalling as it is alarming. But then again, look where we are: Hegseth, the Pentagon chief bringing Musk in, is a former Fox News host whose checkered background should’ve been disqualifying. And Trump is…well, Trump.

Even some Republicans have been rattled by the president’s approach to defense and foreign affairs, including the prospect that the administration could give up US command over NATO forces in Europe. “Such moves risk undermining American deterrence around the globe and detracting from our negotiating positions with America’s adversaries,” Republicans Mike Rogers and Roger Wicker, who chair the Armed Services committees in the House and Senate, wrote in a joint statement this week. But it’s one thing for Republicans to harbor frustrations with the administration; it’s another to act on them. And so far? There’s been little indication that any GOP electeds plan to take meaningful action to hold Trump and Musk back.