House Republican Defends Elon Musk’s Role at the Pentagon When Pressed on Conflicts of Interest

Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) was asked on CNN Friday morning if Elon Musk’s billions in government contracts represented a conflict of interest regarding his work to cut spending at the Pentagon.

In a conversation about DOGE beginning to look at defense spending, Harrigan said, “President Trump, Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, Elon Musk are looking at is they’re making sure that what assets, what capabilities we’re going to move forward with in re-envisioning defense are actually going to help us deter the next conflict, particularly the conflict against China.”

“Do you believe that Elon Musk should be a key part of that initiative, that moving forward? And I ask this because he already holds billions in contracts with the Defense Department,” interjected host Audi Cornish.

“I think that that’s the president’s prerogative, right?” replied Harrigan, adding:

He has enlisted Elon Musk, because he trusts him to go in and say, look, from just a business perspective, Elon Musk is one of the most successful businessmen in the history of humanity. And he trusts him from a business perspective to go in and look at the P&L on the balance sheet effectively, right, the budgets of our military, of our different government agencies.

President Donald Trump and his administration denied on Friday a New York Times article reporting that Musk would be shown a 20 to 30-page battle plan for China. When asked in the Oval Office Friday why Trump didn’t want Musk to see any such documents, Trump noted Musk’s deep business ties to China.

“But I certainly wouldn’t want, you know, Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that,” Trump told Fox’s Peter Doocy.

In recent months, many Democrats have sounded the alarm on Musk’s potential conflicts of interest regarding China. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) wrote a letter to congressional leadership, arguing, “Given the need for Chinese government approvals for his company’s projects in the country, it is similarly unsurprising, yet concerning, that Musk has ingratiated himself with Chinese Communist Party leadership.”

“In April of this year, for example, Musk met with Chinese premier Li Qiang, who helped rush the construction of Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory when he was still the secretary of the city’s Communist Party,” DeLauro concluded by noting Musk’s long history of taking U.S. government subsidies to help build his company and personal wealth.

Watch the clip above via CNN.