{"id":850135,"date":"2025-05-21T22:12:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T03:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/trump-admits-musk-susceptible-on-china-amid-secret-war-plan-row\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T22:12:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T03:12:54","slug":"trump-admits-musk-susceptible-on-china-amid-secret-war-plan-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/trump-admits-musk-susceptible-on-china-amid-secret-war-plan-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump admits Musk \u2018susceptible\u2019 on China amid secret war plan row"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>US President Donald Trump on Friday denied reports that Elon Musk would see top-secret US plans for a possible war with China, saying that his billionaire ally\u2019s links with Beijing raised potential conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n<p>The rare acknowledgement of Musk\u2019s duelling roles in business and government came as Trump pushed back against media reports saying the Space X and Tesla owner would receive a Pentagon briefing on its China strategy.<\/p>\n<p>The reports fanned concern about the influence of the world\u2019s richest man in the White House as an unelected, South African-born tycoon who has become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1892999\">Trump\u2019s closest adviser<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Musk did visit the Pentagon on Friday, but Trump insisted he was \u201cthere for DOGE, not for China\u201d \u2014 referring to Musk\u2019s Department for Government Efficiency, which is expanding its cost-cutting drive to the defence department.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to show it to anybody. You\u2019re talking about a potential war with China,\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the possibility of sharing the war plan with Musk. \u201cCertainly you wouldn\u2019t show it to a businessman \u2026 Elon has businesses in China and he would be susceptible perhaps to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MVyVfkL7PwM?enablejsapi=1&#038;controls=1&#038;modestbranding=1&#038;rel=0\" loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Musk\u2019s automaker Tesla produces some of its electric vehicles at a huge so-called gigafactory in Shanghai and is trying to compete with fast-growing Chinese manufacturers.<\/p>\n<p>The entrepreneur has become a cult figure in China and has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1830184\">fostered ties<\/a> with its leadership. He has also caused controversy by suggesting the self-ruled island of Taiwan should become part of China.<\/p>\n<p>In the United States, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Musk has no conflicts of interest, even as Musk leads a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1898917\/us-judge-orders-musk-to-stop-making-more-cuts-in-usaid\">harsh overhaul<\/a> of US government agencies that in some cases his companies have dealings with.<\/p>\n<p>Musk\u2019s SpaceX has US government defence contracts worth billions of dollars, including for launching rockets and for the use of the Starlink satellite service.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has recently further blurred the line by promoting Tesla cars after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1882771\">attacks<\/a> by vandals over Musk\u2019s links to the White House. Trump suggested on Friday that such vandals could be deported to prisons in El Salvador.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Enemy of the people\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>According to <em><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/20\/us\/politics\/musk-pentagon-briefing-china-war-plan.html\">The New York Times<\/a><\/em>, Musk had been set to receive a briefing on Friday on US military plans in case of a war with China, including maritime tactics and targeting plans.<\/p>\n<p><em><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/national-security\/elon-musk-pentagon-china-us-meeting-922eafdf\">The Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/em> and <em><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2025\/03\/20\/elon-musk-pentagon-hegseth-doge-china\/\">The Washington Post<\/a><\/em> also reported on the apparent briefing.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Times<\/em> later reported that the meeting in the secure \u201ctank\u201d room of the Pentagon had been called off after its story was published late on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, who has launched a series of attacks on journalists and news outlets in recent days, furiously lashed out at the press over the story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey really are the enemy of the people,\u201d Trump said of <em>The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Musk\u2019s \u201cinformal meeting\u201d at the Pentagon would focus on innovation and efficiencies, not \u201ctop secret China war plans\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe <em>NYT<\/em> should immediately retract this fake narrative,\u201d Hegseth said on X.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Tensions have soared between Washington and Beijing since Trump\u2019s inauguration as the world\u2019s two largest economies impose a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1895724\">slew of tariffs<\/a> on each other\u2019s imports.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats have meanwhile blasted Trump for handing administration policy to Musk despite him undergoing no background checks and heading companies with government contracts.<\/p>\n<p>Musk joined the chorus of criticism of <em>The Times<\/em>, <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1902977556329931052\">labelling<\/a> it \u201cpure propaganda\u201d on his social media platform X.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In a <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1902971624703315987\">separate post<\/a> replying to Hegseth, he said Friday\u2019s meeting would not be his first visit to the US Defence Department.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been to the Pentagon many times over many years. Not my first time in the building,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Diego Pingree <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1899424\/trump-admits-musk-susceptible-on-china-amid-secret-war-plan-row\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US President Donald Trump on Friday denied reports that Elon Musk would see top-secret US plans for a possible war with China, saying that his billionaire ally\u2019s links with Beijing raised potential conflicts of interest. The rare acknowledgement of Musk\u2019s duelling roles in business and government came as Trump pushed back against media reports saying<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":850136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4207,4],"tags":[5835,5052],"class_list":{"0":"post-850135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-admits","8":"category-trump","9":"tag-admits","10":"tag-trump"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}