AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Questions are being raised about the purpose of Elon Musk's visit to the Pentagon earlier today. The New York Times first reported, and NPR confirmed, that Musk was meant to be briefed on China. NPR also learned that the briefing was expected to take place in the Tank. That's a secure meeting place within the Pentagon that's generally used by the Joint Chiefs. That would indicate that sensitive information would be discussed, but Defense officials denied reports that it would cover classified material. So what exactly do we know about the tech billionaire's visit? Well, that's why NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman is joining us now. Hi, Tom.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: All right, so still a lot of questions here, but what can we say for sure at this point about Musk's meeting at the Pentagon?
BOWMAN: Ailsa, what we can say for sure is that Musk was at the Pentagon. There's video of him walking in.
CHANG: (Laughter) OK.
BOWMAN: Now, we were told he was supposed to meet in that conference room called the Tank and talk about China with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Admiral Sam Paparo, who is the top U.S. officer in the Pacific region and well-versed on China. The admiral was in Sri Lanka and was slated to take part through a video teleconference. Now, none of that happened. Musk instead went up to Hegseth's office and spent about an hour and a half there, and Hegseth declined to say what they talked about.
Now, some Pentagon officials I spoke with were told the scheduled Tank meeting was for an unclassified briefing on China. The Times, of course, reported that this discussion was set up to talk about war plans for China - obviously very, very sensitive. Now...
CHANG: Right.
BOWMAN: ...President Trump said this was all untrue, saying on his Truth Social site that Musk, quote, "is not being briefed on anything China by the Department of War." Here's what he had to say later about Musk and The Times' reporting at the Oval Office.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Nobody believed it - that the Pentagon was giving him a briefing on what war with China would look like and he has business in - no. They made that up because it's a good story to make up. They're very dishonest people.
CHANG: OK, well, I understand that you talked to some other U.S. officials who expressed concern about Musk's access to any kind of sensitive intelligence. What did they tell you?
BOWMAN: Right. And again, the administration denies there was any kind of sensitive intelligence briefing from Musk on China, or as President Trump really said, anything on China. But officials I spoke with on Capitol Hill - they were very concerned by the report, saying it raised many questions. First of all, it does not appear Musk has the security clearance to see such highly classified intelligence, which is very closely held. What was his need to know? And who authorized his briefing, even if it were to be an unclassified briefing?
Now, the other concern is this. Musk is a businessman with Pentagon contracts. What would he be learning about the various weapons systems and technologies that could possibly be a conflict of interest? And this congressional official wondered, have any other company CEOs previously received any China briefings or had any scheduled?
CHANG: Well, what I'm wondering - what does all of this tell us about what the Pentagon is like under Secretary Pete Hegseth? Like, what are you noticing so far?
BOWMAN: Well, so far, Hegseth has been focused on replacing senior officials like General C.Q. Brown and also Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the top naval officer, making some budget cuts and also doing away with programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion. He talks a lot about bringing more lethality to the Pentagon, but we haven't heard him talk much about China or any other foreign or defense policy issues.
CHANG: That is NPR's Tom Bowman. Thank you, Tom.
BOWMAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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