‘What the [bleep] is Elon doing there?’ Trump personally blocked Musk’s Pentagon briefing on China, report claims
President Donald Trump reportedly halted a classified Pentagon briefing on China planned for Elon Musk last month after internal leaks and concerns over potential conflicts of interest, a senior official told Axios.
The classified session, which was set to involve high-level intelligence on Beijing’s military strategy, was abruptly cancelled following a direct intervention from Trump himself, the outlet reported Tuesday. The decision followed Pentagon officials leaking news of the briefing to The New York Times, and also came as frustration reportedly mounts within the White House over Musk’s unpredictable presence and expansive foreign business entanglements — especially with China.
“What the f*** is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn’t go,” Trump said, the official told Axios.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suspended two Pentagon officials, Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, as part of a probe into who leaked the briefing plans. The Department of Defense confirmed Caldwell’s dismissal in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation, while Politico reported Selnick’s on Tuesday.
The White House did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment. The Pentagon declined to comment.
Axios confirmed the briefing’s cancellation wasn’t a bureaucratic decision — Trump personally intervened, and later told reporters he understood the potential for a conflict of interest given Tesla’s massive presence in China.
“I certainly wouldn’t want — you know, Elon has businesses in China and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that,” Trump told reporters from the Resolute Desk on March 21, a day after the Times broke news of the briefing.
“POTUS still very much loves Elon, but there are some red lines,” the official told Axios. “Elon has a lot of business in China and he has good relations there, and this briefing just wasn’t the right thing.”
Despite the president acknowledging Musk’s potentially competing interests, he asserted the “Failing New York Times” piece was “completely untrue,” insisting “China will not even be mentioned or discussed” at the briefing in a Truth Social post.
Musk echoed Trump’s denial of the Times story, calling the outlet “pure propaganda” in an X post. He also said he “look[s] forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT” — reportedly Caldwell and Selnick.
“They will be found,” Musk said.
The New York Times is pure propaganda.
Also, I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT.
They will be found. pic.twitter.com/xANvLMOH5j
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2025
Musk has been a near-daily fixture throughout Trump’s second term as he leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an entity tasked with overhauling, and decimating, the federal bureaucracy. While the administration has backed Musk publicly, tensions appear to be rising behind closed, and some open, doors as the richest man in history’s unconventional style and sprawling corporate interests — including Tesla’s Shanghai factory and SpaceX launches being reliant on rare-earth materials — clash with growing trade hawkishness toward Beijing.
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