'WTF is Elon doing there?' Trump-Musk vibe cooling over China?

The pot was well and truly stirred on Tuesday, 15 April. Beyond the usual noise of tariffs and courtroom sparring over lingering Trump-era policies, the US news portal Axios came up with two juicy pieces of news about goings-on at the White House.

First, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth moved to suspend two senior Pentagon officials — Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick — sparking off an investigation into which of them had leaked details about a supposed top-secret Pentagon in March, which had been planned specifically for Elon Musk, billionaire friend, mentor, adviser, and seemingly all-round blue-eyed boy to President Donald Trump.

Second, while it may have seemed at first that either Musk or Hegseth decided to pull the plug on that meeting, Axios claimed it was none other than Trump himself who ordered the whole thing shut down. "What the f**k is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn't go," a senior official anonymously told Axios, allegedly quoting Trump.

If true, this moment matters because Musk — who holds no official government post — has already ruffled feathers among administration officials with his frequent pop-ins at the White House (remember his meeting complete with children, girlfriend, and nanny), not to mention his erratic social media behaviour and scorched-earth management style over at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But this particular planned Pentagon briefing appeared to push things too far, even for Trump, as per Axios.

"POTUS still very much loves Elon, but there are some red lines," an official told Axios, explaining that Musk's deep business ties and friendly relations with China made the optics and implications of such a briefing problematic. The official added, “This briefing just wasn’t the right thing.” Trump has said publicly he wouldn't allow conflicts of interest involving Musk on his watch, though critics question how seriously he takes that stance.

🚨NEW: Trump ordered staffers to kill Elon Musk’s planned top-secret Pentagon briefing on China after word of it leaked, @MarcACaputo has learned.

"What the f**k is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn't go," Trump said, a top official recalled. https://t.co/m1Y2Ip9UWv

— Axios (@axios) April 16, 2025

Rewinding a little — the whole China incident became public knowledge on 20 March, when the New York Times accurately reported that Musk was scheduled to attend a Pentagon briefing the next day regarding US military plans in the event of a war — not just — with China.

At around 11.00 that night, Trump took to Truth Social to blast the story as “Fake News” from “the Failing New York Times”, writing, “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. How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue!!!”

Tellingly, the post came only after the original plan for Musk’s China-focused Pentagon briefing had already been cancelled.

Still, Musk did show up at the Pentagon on 21 March for a meeting with Hegseth, though officials insist China was not on the agenda. Meanwhile, in the White House, Trump was more candid with reporters, saying, “I certainly wouldn’t want, you know — Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that,” while also brushing off the coverage as a “fake story”.

Musk, never one to stay quiet, fired back on X, writing, “I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found.”

As the drama unfolded, Reuters was first to report that Caldwell had been suspended. By late Tuesday, Politico added that Selnick had also been placed on leave and escorted from the Pentagon.

And while the China briefing grabbed the headlines, the leak investigation is reportedly much broader. Politico reported it also includes sensitive military planning around the Panama Canal, operations in the Red Sea, and intelligence collection related to Ukraine.

He’s going to be fired because he outed the fact that Musk arranged with Hegseth to get a top secret briefing at the Pentagon. Trump and his Chief of Staff didn’t even know about it. As usual, in Trump World, the person who does the right thing is the one who is punished. pic.twitter.com/EBN0Y0CscU

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 16, 2025

Despite being iced out of the Pentagon briefing, Musk hasn’t exactly been benched in Trump’s orbit, with vice-president J.D. Vance brushing off any whispers of a fallout, insisting Musk remains a “friend and adviser”.

But let’s be honest: the vibe is shifting. Trump himself has started acknowledging the elephant — or rather, the electric car — in the room. “Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible perhaps to that,” he admitted to reporters, throwing in, “Certainly you wouldn’t show [military plans] to a businessman.”

That’s a very different tune from earlier in the year, when Trump sounded blissfully unbothered by Musk’s globe-trotting diplomacy, including the meeting with PM Modi. “They met, and I assume (Musk) wants to do business in India,” Trump shrugged at the time.

In the past, Musk has shown himself to be something of a China fan boy, praising the country’s work ethic, defending some of Beijing’s more controversial stances, and remaining noticeably mum on their censorship laws — even while claiming to be a free speech absolutist. “I’m kind of pro-China,” he once said, with all the subtlety of a love note.

And why wouldn’t he be? is practically fused to China’s economy. The Shanghai giga factory, launched in 2019 with a generous boost from Chinese bank loans, now pumps out half of Tesla’s global supply. It was the first foreign-owned auto plant in China and is still Tesla’s biggest facility. While other markets have stalled, Tesla’s China sales shot up nearly 9 per cent last year.

Musk isn’t just doing business — he’s building relationships. He’s had cosy ties with top Chinese officials for years, including Premier Li Qiang, who once offered him a Chinese green card. Yes, a green card. From China.

Fun fact: Trump is actually spending MORE money than Biden did.

Musk and DOGE are a FRAUD — their real role is shutting down parts of the government that regulate Musk’s businesses while redirecting govt contracts to Musk and other insiders. pic.twitter.com/lJNAfuV4vG

— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) April 12, 2025

But lately, that cosy corner is starting to feel like a hot seat. Trump’s trade war with China has reached scorched-earth status, with US tariffs climbing to 145 per cent and China clapping back with a 124.1 per cent rate on American goods. Tesla, stuck in the middle, isn’t thrilled. The company sent a letter to the White House warning that “U.S. exporters are inherently exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries respond to U.S. trade actions”.

Musk hasn’t exactly kept his displeasure private either. As he vented to Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, “Ideally… Europe and the US should move to a zero tariff situation.” And he’s lobbed insults at Trump’s trade team with his usual restraint — which is to say, none. He called Peter Navarro, the architect of the tariff plan, “a moron”, adding that Navarro was “dumber than a sack of bricks”. The fragrance of classic Musk.

As Trump doubles down on his hardline China policy, Musk’s warm embrace of Beijing is becoming a bit of a political headache. Most CEOs keep things polite but cautious when dealing with China. Not Musk. He’s effusive and very, very public.

So this week’s chaos could be more than just drama — it could be a line in the sand. Trump’s decision to pull Musk from the Pentagon briefing reads like a quiet but pointed message. And while Musk is on the defensive, he’s not going down without a tweet.

In Trump’s second term, loyalty still counts. But if you’re tight with China? That might be the one dealbreaker even Musk can’t engineer his way around.

With agency inputs