WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – US President Donald Trump has denied a report from the New York Times that his closest ally, billionaire Elon Musk, would be informed by the Pentagon on Friday about the US Army's plan for every war that could break out with China.
“China will not even be mentioned or discussed,” Trump said in a position about the Pentagon meeting about Truth Social on Thursday.
Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseeth said in a post about X that the meeting “would be about innovation, efficiency and smarter production.”
An American officer, who spoke about the condition of anonymity, said that the briefing for Musk would be attended by high American military officials in the Pentagon and would be an overview of a number of different topics, including China.
According to the New York Times report, the briefing would include 20 to 30 slides that explain how the United States would fight in a conflict with China. The newspaper mentioned two American officials who did not identify it.
Access to the densely guarded military plan would mark a sharp extension of the role of Musk as a Trump consultant who has the spearheads to lower US government spending.
It would also feed questions about conflicts of interest for Musk, who has Tesla and SpaceX business interests in China and with the Pentagon.
The White House has said earlier that Musk will take itself back if conflicts of interest arises between his business transactions and his role in reducing the expenditure of the federal government.
Washington and Beijing have had tense relationships for years about differences, ranging from access to technology, trading rates and cyber security to TIKTOK, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Human Rights and the origin of COVID-19.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Edit by Stephen Coates and Edwina Gibbs)
