WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Billionaire Elon Musk, U.S. President Donald Trump’s shut ally, is because of be briefed on Friday by the Pentagon on the U.S. navy’s plan for any battle that may get away with China, the New York Occasions reported on Thursday, citing U.S. officers.
Entry to the intently guarded navy plan would mark an sharp enlargement of Musk’s function as a Trump adviser who has spearheaded efforts to chop U.S. authorities spending.
It will additionally gasoline questions on conflicts of curiosity for Musk, who as the top of each Tesla and SpaceX has enterprise pursuits in China and with the Pentagon.
The White Home has beforehand mentioned Musk will recuse himself if any conflicts of curiosity come up between his enterprise dealings and his function in chopping federal authorities spending.
The briefing for the China battle plan has about 20 to 30 slides that lay out how the US would battle such a battle, the New York Occasions reported.
The Pentagon confirmed that Musk might be visiting on Friday however didn’t share additional particulars.
“The Protection Division is happy to welcome Elon Musk to the Pentagon on Friday. He was invited by Secretary (Pete) Hegseth and is simply visiting,” a Pentagon spokesperson mentioned.
However one other official Pentagon account on X, referred to as DoD Fast Response, mentioned: “The NYT is a propaganda machine that desperately must clickbait folks into studying their FAKE information articles.”
A U.S. official, talking on the situation of anonymity, mentioned that the briefing for Musk can be attended by senior U.S. navy officers within the Pentagon and can be an outline on quite a lot of completely different matters, together with China.
Washington and Beijing have had tense relations for years over variations starting from entry to know-how, commerce tariffs and cybersecurity to TikTok, Taiwan, Hong Kong, human rights and the origins of COVID-19.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Modifying by Edwina Gibbs and Stephen Coates)
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