(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump personally intervened to prevent Elon Musk from attending a classified Pentagon briefing on China, igniting a firestorm over national security, business interests, and government transparency.
According to a report by Axios, President Donald Trump personally intervened to block Elon Musk from receiving a classified Pentagon briefing on China in March 2025.
In the middle of March 2025, plans were made for Elon Musk to receive a highly classified Pentagon briefing on U.S. military strategies for a potential conflict with China.
The briefing was slated for March 21, 2025, in a secure Pentagon conference room informally known as “the Tank,” which is generally designated for high-level military meetings. Per a report by The New York Times, Admiral Samuel Paparo, the four-star commander of the Indo-Pacific region who would be in charge of operations in any potential clash with China, would lead the briefing.
The planned briefing first became public when the NYT reported on March 20 that Musk was set to receive information on top-secret war preparations, including a presentation featuring 20 to 30 slides outlining potential U.S. military actions against China.
This report immediately generated controversy, owing to Musk’s extensive business interests in China through Tesla and his role in the Trump administration.
Upon learning about the scheduled briefing, President Trump reportedly angrily reacted, telling staffers: “What the f**k is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn’t go.”
Trump personally intervened to cancel Musk’s participation in the classified portion of the Pentagon visit, though Musk attended a different meeting at the Pentagon that same day with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth where China was reportedly not discussed.
When NYT first reported on the planned briefing, Trump quickly dismissed the story as “fake news” on his Truth Social platform.
“They said, incorrectly, that Elon Musk is going to the Pentagon tomorrow to be briefed on any potential ‘war with China,'” Trump wrote. “How ridiculous? China will not even be mentioned or discussed. How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue!!!”
However, Trump later acknowledged the underlying concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Speaking to reporters on March 21, he explained: “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. You know, Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that – but it was such a fake story.”
At the heart of the controversy lies the potential conflict between Musk’s business interests and his advisory role in the Trump administration. As CEO of Tesla, Musk maintains significant operations in China, where the company has a major manufacturing facility in Shanghai and relies on the Chinese market for a significant share of its revenue.
The situation highlights the complex challenges when business leaders assume prominent government advisory roles, particularly those involving access to classified national security information. As a Trump administration official said to Axios, “POTUS still very much loves Elon, but there are some red lines. Elon has a lot of business in China and he has good relations there, and this briefing just wasn’t the right thing.”
After the NYT’s report about the planned briefing, a significant leak investigation was launched at the Pentagon. Headline USA previously reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth placed two senior officials — Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick — on administrative leave and had them escorted from the Pentagon after they were identified as part of the investigation into unauthorized leaks.
The probe goes beyond just the Musk briefing and covers several other leaked materials, including military operational plans for the Panama Canal, Red Sea operations, and intelligence collection efforts in Ukraine.
This increased amount of leaks prompted a crackdown within the Trump administration, with Defense Secretary Hegseth’s chief of staff Joe Kasper announcing last month that the Pentagon’s intelligence and law enforcement arms would investigate “recent unauthorized disclosures” of sensitive national security information.
With the boundaries of influence and access under increased scrutiny, the fallout from Trump’s intervention signals a new phase in the uneasy alliance between the White House and America’s most prominent billionaire.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
