A newly surfaced report revealing that the Pentagon plans to brief tech mogul Elon Musk on potential military strategies in the event of war with China has triggered widespread alarm—and no small amount of disbelief—on social media.
According to The New York Times, two U.S. officials confirmed the scheduled meeting, while a third source said the briefing would specifically address China. A fourth official simply acknowledged that Musk—President Donald Trump’s top campaign donor and head of the Department of Government Efficiency—was slated to visit the Pentagon on Friday.
The Times noted that granting Musk, the world’s richest man, access “to some of the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets would be a dramatic expansion of his already extensive role as an adviser to President Trump and leader of his effort to slash spending and purge the government of people and policies they oppose.”
The Pentagon’s operational plans, the report stressed, “are among the military’s most closely guarded secrets.” Social media erupted in criticism, disbelief, and dark humor over the news. “There’s a decent shot that he casually posts these on Twitter because he’s bored or hopped up on goofballs,” quipped Mike Boylan-Kolchin, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Texas.
“This is insane. In a time when lunacy dominates our headlines this is more screamingly demented and dangerous than almost anything we’ve seen so far,” wrote Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf. “Musk–a friend of Putin, business partner of China, ketamine-taking white supremacist–is being given our war plans?”
Jamelle Bouie of The New York Times mocked, “Yeah makes sense, he’s the president,” while NBC News analyst Frank Figliuzzi called Musk “a clear and present danger.” The anti-Trump group Republicans Against Trumpism echoed the sentiment: “This. Is. Not. Normal.”
Critics also questioned Musk’s ties to China. Gizmodo tech reporter Matt Novak observed, “Musk is a defense contractor and has a factory in China. The fact that he’s going to get a briefing like this is truly failed state territory.”
Tech reporter Kate Conger posed the question plainly: “Is it good to give the China war plan to Elon Musk, or….” The Guardian US’s Julia Carrie Wong warned, “China has enormous leverage over Musk… this is flipping insane.” Neither Musk nor the Pentagon has publicly commented on the report.
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