President Donald Trump denied a report from The New York Times earlier this week that claimed Elon Musk was to be included in a Pentagon briefing on Friday about U.S. military plans in the event war breaks out with China.
In a Thursday post on Truth Social, the President said the topic of China would not even be discussed at the meeting.
“The Fake News is at it again, this time the Failing New York Times. They said, incorrectly, that Elon Musk is going to the Pentagon tomorrow to be briefed on any potential ‘war with China.’ How ridiculous? China will not even be mentioned or discussed,” Trump wrote on March 20.
The Times spoke to multiple anonymous U.S. officials about the purported briefing. The sources indicated the meeting would be attended by senior members of the U.S. military at the Pentagon and would cover several topics, including 20 to 30 slides outlining how the United States would engage in a conflict with China.
The President once again posted about the article on March 21, calling the Times “one of the worst and most purposely inaccurate newspapers anywhere in the World.”
“Their FAKE concept for this story is that because Elon does some business in China, that he is very conflicted and would immediately go to top Chinese officials and ‘spill the beans.’ RATINGS CHALLENGED FAKE NEWS CNN immediately picked up on this absolutely ridiculous and false story, which is probably libelous, and went heavy with it.”
Trump went on to call out one of the story’s authors, Maggie Haberman, for always “using anonymous, made up (nonexistent!) sources.”
“She lead the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, only to realize that she was duped and got it wrong. She owes me a totally discredited Pulitzer Prize for her bad reporting. The Fake News is the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE…And Elon is NOT BEING BRIEFED ON ANYTHING CHINA BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR!!!” the President continued.