Tesla CEO Elon Musk wears a ‘Trump Was Right About Everything!’ hat while attending a cabinet meeting at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 24, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
A meeting Elon Musk scheduled with Pentagon officials in March was scheduled without Donald Trump’s knowledge causing friction between the two, reports the Wall Street Journal.
As part of a deep dive into the relationship between the tech billionaire and the president that Musk had a large hand in getting re-elected, the Journal’s Josh Dawsey, Annie Linskey, Brian Schwartz and Dana Mattioli report that tensions within the White House between Musk and staffers led the president to instruct chief of staff Susie Wiles to take control of the situation.
According to the report, “In the months since Trump took office, Musk has alienated some Trump aides with his chaotic approach to his role.”
Case in point, the Pentagon meeting Musk set up with the Pentagon where he was reportedly going to be briefed on China war strategy that, once leaked, set off a firestorm the White House was forced to put out.
As the Journal is reporting, “The president has tried to smooth over cracks in the relationship between Musk and the rest of his team,” before noting, “Trump was also unhappy when he learned in mid-March that Musk was scheduled to get a briefing on China and secret U.S. war plans at the Pentagon. Publicly, Trump dismissed the report as ‘fake news.’ Privately, he called the potential briefing a conflict of interest given Tesla’s extensive operations in China and was frustrated he didn’t know about it in advance.”
