The New York Times article that the president called “such a fake story” had claimed that Elon Musk was going to attend a briefing with top military leaders about what the American war plan would be in the event of war with China.
According to the follow-up piece by the Times (March 21, 2025), President Trump said that no such briefing with that purpose had been planned and also that such a briefing would be inappropriate.
“We don’t want to have a potential war with China, but I can tell you, if we did, we’re very well equipped to handle it,” Trump told reporters. “But I don’t want to show that to anybody, but certainly you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much….
“He’s finding tremendous waste, fraud and abuse, but I certainly wouldn’t want—you know, Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that—but it was such a fake story….
“I might add that I think [that] if they ever wanted to do that, I think Elon wouldn’t do it. I think he wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t want to put himself in that position.”
In addition to his work for the Department of Government Efficiency to help cut costs and reduce the size of government, Musk runs several companies in his spare time, including Space X and Tesla. The latter, his electric vehicle company, has a large presence in China.
