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Elon Musk’s Friday go to to the Pentagon drew criticism and highlighted his corporations’ hyperlinks to each the federal authorities and China. The billionaire’s rocket firm SpaceX has $22 billion in contracts with the federal authorities. In China, Musk’s Tesla operates its largest manufacturing facility, Gigafactory Shanghai, which as of final 12 months produced about half of all Tesla autos.
Elon Musk visited the Pentagon Friday for a briefing on China which underscored the billionaire’s steadily rising affect within the Trump administration in addition to his companies’ deep ties to each the federal authorities and China.
Musk was initially meant to obtain a briefing on top-secret info associated to a possible warfare with China, The New York Instances reported, though protection officers later mentioned he would obtain an unclassified briefing, in keeping with the Wall Street Journal. The Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump have each denied that Musk visited the Pentagon to obtain top-secret info on a potential warfare with China, as was reported by the Instances previous to Musk’s go to Friday.
Earlier than reporters within the Oval Workplace, Trump famous that Musk wouldn’t see top-secret info on a possible warfare with China, and mentioned that the billionaire’s companies may play a job.
“We don’t wish to have a possible warfare with China, however I can let you know if we did, we’re very well-equipped to deal with it, however I don’t wish to present that to anyone however definitely you wouldn’t present it to a businessman,” Trump mentioned. “Elon has companies in China and he can be inclined maybe to that.”
No matter info he acquired (he replied “Why should I tell you?” to a reporter’s query in regards to the topic of the assembly), the potential high-level nature of his Pentagon go to has drawn scrutiny.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who can be a senior member of the Senate’s Armed Companies Committee, wrote in a put up that Musk mustn’t have been on the Pentagon.
“Elon Musk is an unelected, self-interested billionaire with no enterprise wherever close to the Pentagon,” Gillibrand wrote in a post on X.
It’s unclear whether or not different protection corporations would file lawsuits primarily based on Musk’s entry, however even when they do it’s uncertain they might prevail in court docket, mentioned Case Western Reserve College regulation professor Anat Alon-Beck.
“No person’s promised equal entry to that sort of data,” Alon-Beck instructed Fortune. “We have at all times had individuals—with the earlier administrations as effectively—having entry versus others who do not. So it isn’t nearly Musk.”
Nonetheless, Musk’s companies have deep ties to China. His EV maker Tesla has been promoting autos within the nation for a decade and Musk has typically spoken positively in regards to the nation. In 2023, throughout an audio interview with U.S. lawmakers on his social media community X, the CEO mentioned he was “pro-China.”
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