Author: Eric Schmitt, Eric Lipton, Julian E. Barnes, Ryan Mac and Maggie Haberman
Published on: 20/03/2025 | 00:00:00
AI Summary:
The Pentagon is scheduled on Friday to brief Elon Musk on the U.S. Military’s plan for any war that might break out with China. A fourth official confirmed Mr. Musk was to be at the Pentagon on Friday, but offered no details. A White House spokesman did not respond to an email seeking comment about the purpose of the visit, how it came about, whether Mr. Trump was aware of it, and whether the visit raises questions of conflicts of interest. Mr. Musk has a security clearance, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth can determine who needs to know about the plan. Mr. Musk is not in the military chain of command, nor is he an official adviser to Mr. Trump on military matters involving China. He may need to know what weapons systems the Pentagon plans to use in a fight with China. But if the U.S. War strategy relies on using aircraft carriers in innovative ways that would surprise China, mothballing existing ships or stopping production on future ships could cripple that plan. Critics have said the military has invested too much in big expensive systems like fighter jets or Mr. Musk’s constellations of low-earth orbit Starlink satellites are considered more resilient than traditional satellites. But he could have an interest in learning about whether or not the United States could defend his satellites in a war with China. He could gain insight into new tools that the Pentagon might need and SpaceX, where he remains the chief executive, could sell. In 2024, SpaceX was granted about $1.6 billion in Air Force contracts. That does not include classified spending with SpaceX by the National Reconnaissance Office. Mr. Trump has already proposed that the United States build a new system the military is calling Golden Dome. Even starting to plan and build the first components of the system will cost tens of billions of dollars. SpaceX has become so valuable to the Pentagon that the Chinese government has said it considers the company an extension of the U.S. Military. Mr. Musk and Tesla are heavily reliant on China, which houses one of the auto maker’s flagship factory in Shanghai. In 2022, the billionaire wrote a column for the magazine of the Cyberspace Administration of China. In that same interview, Mr. Musk said China should be given some control over Taiwan. He also noted that he gave Beijing assurances he would not sell Starlink. More than a dozen federal agencies have reinstated employees and immediately placed them on administrative leave. Probationary workers described how information about their future was difficult, if not impossible, to come by. Environmental Protection Agency: Billions of dollars in funding for climate projects are still in limbo after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the agency from pulling $14 billion in climate grant funding out of accounts at Citibank.
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Fucking aljazira keep changing their RSS feed format so it summarising video captions. If u wanna submit a pull request I would be greatful