Elon Musk holds unprecedented Pentagon talks, wants leakers prosecuted

22/3/2025 6:25

Billionaire Elon Musk took his campaign to cut the U.S. federal government into uncharted waters on Friday, holding an unprecedented top-level meeting at the Pentagon and calling for the prosecution of any Defense Department officials leaking "maliciously false information" about his visit.



Musk, whose businesses have a number of Defense Department contracts, met U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for 80 minutes in his first such talks at the Pentagon, which is responsible for a large chunk of federal government spending. It was unclear whether U.S. generals joined that meeting virtually.



The New York Times reported that Musk would be briefed on secret war plans for China, something Musk, Trump and others denied. Musk called the report "pure propaganda" and urged legal action against leakers.



"I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found," he wrote on X before the Hegseth meeting.



At the White House after the meeting, Trump said that he did not want to show the United States' plans for a potential war with China to anybody and hinted at Musk's potential conflict of interest.