Donald Trump called The New York Times “the enemy of the people” on Friday over its report that Elon Musk would be briefed on classified U.S. military plans in the event of a war with China.
That scenario could be a conflict of interest for the Tesla CEO since about half of the company’s hybrid vehicles are produced at the Shanghai factory, according to the Wall Street Journal.
On Truth Social, Trump posted a lengthy rant on the matter that ended with the note, “The Fake News is the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE…And Elon is NOT BEING BRIEFED ON ANYTHING CHINA BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR!!!”
Speaking from the Oval Office on Friday, he again referred to the Times as “the enemy of the people,” insisting, “They have fake sources or they don’t have sources. I think they make most of it up.”
Musk was invited to visit the Pentagon on Friday by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN that the tech billionaire is “just visiting.”
Parnell later retweeted the Times article with the note, “This is 100% Fake News. Just brazenly & maliciously wrong. Elon Musk is a patriot. We are proud to have him at the Pentagon.”
Musk himself dismissed the Times report as “pure propaganda,” and said he “looked forward to the prosecutions” of staffers at the Pentagon who are “leaking maliciously false information to NYT.”
During his remarks in the Oval Office, Trump also criticized CNN and MSNBC, claiming they lack credibility and suffer from poor ratings. “We have made such big strides over the past two months, and we just need honest journalism, and we don’t have it,” he said.
Last week, Trump called CNN and MSNBC “illegal” for their negative coverage of him and called for his enemies to “go to jail.”
