Trump and Hegseth debunk New York Times’ claim that Musk received a report on Chinese war plans

After the New York Times published an "exclusive" claiming that the mogul Elon Musk was to visit the Pentagon this Friday to receive information about alleged war plans between the U.S. and China, President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth came out to publicly deny the New York newspaper's information.

"He's there for DOGE, not there for China, and if you ever mentioned China, I think he'd walk out of the room," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about Musk's meeting at the Pentagon, which, indeed took place this Friday, as the NYT had anticipated.

In its report, the NYT quoted two U.S. officials telling the media outlet that the meeting between Musk and Pentagon officials would address military actions in case of a conflict with China. However, Secretary Hegseth labeled the report as inaccurate.

"We welcomed him today to the Pentagon to talk about DOGE, to talk about efficiencies, to talk about innovations," Hegseth told reporters in the Oval Office. "It was a great, informal conversation. The rest of that reporting was fake. There was no war plans, there was no Chinese war plans. There was no secret plans."

Pointedly, Hegseth, who met with Musk in the morning at the Pentagon, did not clarify whether during the conversation with Musk China was mentioned in general or residual terms.

Musk, who has become a top adviser to President Trump, arrived at the Pentagon shortly before 9 a.m. EDT, and his visit lasted just over an hour. Musk left Hegseth's office at 10:21 a.m. Friday.

When asked about the meeting, Musk simply replied, "It’s always a great meeting."

After the meeting, neither Hegseth nor Musk responded to press inquiries about whether they discussed China in their meeting or whether it was a classified briefing.

When the NYT asked Hegseth what he had discussed with Musk, the defense secretary defiantly responded, “Why would I tell you?”