Ahead of a Friday visit to the Pentagon, Elon Musk, along with President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, rushed to deny news reports that the billionaire businessman would receive a top-secret briefing on U.S. plans for a hypothetical war with China. They first downplayed, then downgraded, the meeting — perhaps because it would obviously look bad to share commercially valuable war plans with the chief executive of a major defense contractor, SpaceX — or with the CEO of Tesla, which is deeply reliant on China for manufacturing and sales.
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Anyone properly concerned about the risks involved could feel some relief in learning that Musk would not, after all, be let in on some of the U.S. government’s most sensitive secrets. Nevertheless, the episode was a reminder of Musk’s many other conflicts of interest and the lack of transparency that clouds his wide-ranging work as a special government employee overseeing the U.S. DOGE Service. When Musk’s envoys show up at agencies that he privately does business with, including NASA, or that regulate his companies, troubling questions are raised.
This happened when it was revealed that the Federal Aviation Administration was considering shifting a contract for its communications systems from Verizon to Musk’s Starlink. Questions have also arisen, and not been put to rest, about what Musk’s employees at DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency, might do with their access to a confidential database of drug approvals, given that Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company, has business before the Food and Drug Administration. Democratic senators likewise received no answers to their questions about Musk’s role in neutering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, even though he has moved toward rebranding X as a mobile payments company.
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Last weekend, an outgoing Commerce Department official warned in a farewell email to colleagues that the Trump administration is poised to award rural broadband money to Starlink. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” wrote Evan Feinman, who directed the department’s $42.5 billion rural broadband program. Perhaps it is practical to use Starlink instead of more-expensive traditional broadband in rural America, but Musk’s deep and often veiled involvement in all facets of the administration should nevertheless prompt skepticism.
Over the past two decades, Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, helping him become the world’s richest person. In 2024 alone, federal and local governments committed at least $6.3 billion to Musk’s companies.
Follow Trump’s first 100 Days
The White House contends that Musk has fully complied with the law and will recuse himself when appropriate, but officials have declined to say whether Trump signed a waiver to exempt Musk from complying with conflict-of-interest rules or whether Musk has privately disclosed financial information to officials. (As a special government employee, he is not required to publicly release such information.)
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Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia) sent a letter to DOGE this past week asking for an accounting of how many people in the agency work for Musk — including in unpaid roles — and how many continue to hold outside employment. The public deserves to know whether any safeguards exist to prevent temporary staffers from misusing special access to sensitive data to give Musk’s companies a leg up in future business.
On Friday, Musk met with Hegseth for about an hour in the defense secretary’s office rather than in “the Tank,” a secure conference room where the New York Times had reported Musk would be briefed on the operational plans. (The Wall Street Journal said Musk had requested the top-secret briefing.) Hegseth tweeted that the meeting would be “about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.”
Hegseth and Trump might have an argument for bringing Musk, who has a security clearance, into the loop on some operational planning — if it is to protect from the DOGE budget ax any weapons systems and projects that might play an essential role in a war with Beijing. But granting him special access could also give him an advantage over other defense contractors — and give those companies grounds to file a formal protest the next time they miss out on a contract.
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Still more troubling are Musk’s self-described “vested interests in China,” which include a “Gigafactory” in Shanghai that produces half of all Teslas worldwide. Though he has been willing to criticize U.S. allies, Musk has spoken positively of Xi Jinping’s autocratic regime and has even said China should have more control over Taiwan. To Trump’s credit, he clarified on Friday that Musk would not be shown the war plans. “Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible perhaps to that,” Trump said.
This is a welcome restraint on Musk’s power. Still needed are clear and transparent guardrails to assure Americans that the president’s special employee is working for them, and not himself.
Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter
Anyone properly concerned about the risks involved could feel some relief in learning that Musk would not, after all, be let in on some of the U.S. government’s most sensitive secrets. Nevertheless, the episode was a reminder of Musk’s many other conflicts of interest and the lack of transparency that clouds his wide-ranging work as a special government employee overseeing the U.S. DOGE Service. When Musk’s envoys show up at agencies that he privately does business with, including NASA, or that regulate his companies, troubling questions are raised.
This happened when it was revealed that the Federal Aviation Administration was considering shifting a contract for its communications systems from Verizon to Musk’s Starlink. Questions have also arisen, and not been put to rest, about what Musk’s employees at DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency, might do with their access to a confidential database of drug approvals, given that Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company, has business before the Food and Drug Administration. Democratic senators likewise received no answers to their questions about Musk’s role in neutering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, even though he has moved toward rebranding X as a mobile payments company.
Advertisement
Last weekend, an outgoing Commerce Department official warned in a farewell email to colleagues that the Trump administration is poised to award rural broadband money to Starlink. “Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” wrote Evan Feinman, who directed the department’s $42.5 billion rural broadband program. Perhaps it is practical to use Starlink instead of more-expensive traditional broadband in rural America, but Musk’s deep and often veiled involvement in all facets of the administration should nevertheless prompt skepticism.
Over the past two decades, Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, helping him become the world’s richest person. In 2024 alone, federal and local governments committed at least $6.3 billion to Musk’s companies.
Follow Trump’s first 100 Days
The White House contends that Musk has fully complied with the law and will recuse himself when appropriate, but officials have declined to say whether Trump signed a waiver to exempt Musk from complying with conflict-of-interest rules or whether Musk has privately disclosed financial information to officials. (As a special government employee, he is not required to publicly release such information.)
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Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia) sent a letter to DOGE this past week asking for an accounting of how many people in the agency work for Musk — including in unpaid roles — and how many continue to hold outside employment. The public deserves to know whether any safeguards exist to prevent temporary staffers from misusing special access to sensitive data to give Musk’s companies a leg up in future business.
On Friday, Musk met with Hegseth for about an hour in the defense secretary’s office rather than in “the Tank,” a secure conference room where the New York Times had reported Musk would be briefed on the operational plans. (The Wall Street Journal said Musk had requested the top-secret briefing.) Hegseth tweeted that the meeting would be “about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.”
Hegseth and Trump might have an argument for bringing Musk, who has a security clearance, into the loop on some operational planning — if it is to protect from the DOGE budget ax any weapons systems and projects that might play an essential role in a war with Beijing. But granting him special access could also give him an advantage over other defense contractors — and give those companies grounds to file a formal protest the next time they miss out on a contract.
Advertisement
Still more troubling are Musk’s self-described “vested interests in China,” which include a “Gigafactory” in Shanghai that produces half of all Teslas worldwide. Though he has been willing to criticize U.S. allies, Musk has spoken positively of Xi Jinping’s autocratic regime and has even said China should have more control over Taiwan. To Trump’s credit, he clarified on Friday that Musk would not be shown the war plans. “Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible perhaps to that,” Trump said.
This is a welcome restraint on Musk’s power. Still needed are clear and transparent guardrails to assure Americans that the president’s special employee is working for them, and not himself.
