President Trump says Elon Musk will not be shown sensitive plans for a hypothetical war with China, insisting he would not show them to “anybody” and certainly not a businessman.

Mr. Trump was asked by Fox News’ Peter Doocy why he would not show Mr. Musk a presentation of a “theoretical war plan against China.”

“I don’t want to show it to anybody. You’re talking about a potential war against China,” the president said. “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 noted Mr. Musk has business interest in China and said that would make him “susceptible perhaps to that.”

Defense Secretary Hegseth chimed in to call The New York Times’ report that Musk was going to be briefed a “fake” story designed to “undermine whatever relationship the Pentagon has with Elon Musk.”

Mr. Hegseth said Mr. Musk’s trip to the Pentagon on Friday included an “informal” discussion about the Department of Government Efficiency to discuss cost-cutting measures and “innovations.”

“The rest of that reporting was fake. There was no war plans, there was no Chinese war plans, there was no secret plans,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump asserted that Mr. Musk would not want to receive such a presentation because “he wouldn’t want to put himself in that position.”

“If you read what’s out of The New York Times, it’s such (a) dishonest newspaper, it’s such garbage,” he said. “This was a made-up story by The New York Times.”

The Times published a report Thursday based on “U.S. officials” who said that Mr. Musk was set to be briefed on highly sensitive plans for “any war that might break out with China.” Another official told the paper that the briefing was supposed to be “China-focused,” and a fourth simply confirmed that the billionaire businessman would be at the Pentagon.

“There is a possible reason Mr. Musk might have needed to know aspects of the war plan,” The Times said. “If Mr. Musk and his team of cost cutters from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, want to trim the Pentagon budget in a responsible way, they may need to know what weapons systems the Pentagon plans to use in a fight with China.”

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Mr. Musk was “originally scheduled to receive a briefing on top-secret plans for a potential war with China, but U.S. defense officials later said he would sit for an unclassified meeting.”

Both reports noted the possibility of Mr. Musk viewing such plans raised concerns about potential conflicts of interests as his SpaceX has contracts with the Pentagon.

In response to the Times’ report, Mr. Musk posted on X, “The New York Times is pure propaganda. Also, I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found.”

A spokesperson for the Times told the Sun, “Our job is to report news that is in the public interest. Elon Musk is the chief executive of both SpaceX and Tesla, and a leading supplier to the Pentagon and has extensive financial interests in China. The Pentagon’s plans to brief him on confidential military secrets related to China raised clear conflicts of interest. We stand by our reporting and will continue to pursue the facts and share them fully and fairly with the public.”

After the meeting, Mr. Hegseth shared a video on X with music showing Mr. Musk visiting the Pentagon and said it was an “amazing visit.”