Elon Musk has been doing more than just cutting government waste.
The billionaire tech mogul dropped a bombshell about his hidden influence at the Pentagon.
And Elon Musk just revealed this secret role for America’s military that left Pentagon bureaucrats shell-shocked.
While most Americans know Elon Musk as the billionaire leading President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he’s been playing another role behind the scenes that could reshape America’s military for decades to come.
In a jaw-dropping revelation during an hour-long Q&A session with Axios and about a dozen other news outlets in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Musk confessed he’s been “quietly advising” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on where to spend America’s defense dollars.
The SpaceX founder admitted he personally pushed Hegseth to pour more money into hypersonic missiles and low-range drones – the exact kinds of cutting-edge weapons systems that would benefit companies like his own.
“I think he’s in agreement, by the way,” Musk added, suggesting his recommendations are being taken seriously at the highest levels of the Pentagon.
SpaceX has billions in lucrative Pentagon contracts, including a $1.8 billion deal earlier this year for national security space launches and hundreds of millions more for Starlink communications in global hotspots.
American futurologist, political scientist, and geopolitical author on international relations, George Friedman pointed to why Musk’s companies have become vital to America’s military in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson.
“Now MAD is assured from space. Satellites are flying there. Satellites blocked the Russians in Ukraine. American satellites could see small units down to a meter level resolution. And we put in things like HIMARS, these missile systems that could with precision hit them,” the founder of strategic intelligence publisher Geopolitical Futures and former CEO of strategic intelligence Stratfor declared.
“So now tactical war is governed from space. MAD is covered from space and space is full of debris anti-satellite systems. The Chinese are launching them constantly. We’ve launched 200 satellites this year,” Friedman concluded.
George Friedman explains two truths.
1) NATO was at its core a way of preventing Russia from overrunning Europe and gaining access to the Atlantic ports.
2) Our technological advantage is our ability to see the battlefield from space. We possess the ultimate eye in the sky. pic.twitter.com/6p3fufOv7w
— The Reckoning 💥 (@sethjlevy) April 26, 2025
Musk’s remarks come as he’s announced he’s scaling back his time in Washington.
The world’s richest man revealed he’s cutting his physical presence in DC to just one or two days per week – but tellingly, still plans to keep his West Wing office right in the heart of presidential power.
“It has a view of nothing,” he said of his office. “It has a window but all you see is the HVAC unit, which is fine. It makes it harder to shoot me, I guess. There’s not a good line of sight.”
The comments about his personal security underscore the high-stakes nature of Musk’s government role.
He has previously spoken about death threats directed at him and his team since taking on the DOGE position.
“Being attacked relentlessly is not super fun,” he said during the interview. “Seeing cars on fire is not fun,” referring to protests and vandalism targeting Tesla dealerships.
Despite these challenges, Musk appears to be maintaining his influence within the administration through multiple channels – not just through his official DOGE role, but through these previously undisclosed advisory relationships with Cabinet officials.
During the interview, Musk admitted DOGE’s $160 billion in savings on federal spending fall far short of where he’d hoped to be and felt was possible – a massive $2 trillion in cuts Musk projected could be accomplished.
But instead of accepting defeat, the tech titan dropped yet another bombshell: DOGE may continue throughout Trump’s entire term, rather than shutting down in 2026 as originally planned.
“I think so,” Musk said when asked if DOGE would be extended through 2028. “It’s up to the president.” A convenient extension that would keep him with his hands firmly on the levers of power for years to come.
The eye-popping level of access Musk enjoys was further exposed when he casually mentioned he sometimes sleeps in the White House’s historic Lincoln Bedroom at President Trump’s personal invitation.
“He was like: ‘Where are you staying?’ I was like: ‘I don’t know. At a friend’s house, I guess.’ And then he was like: ‘Why don’t you stay here?’ I was like: ‘Sure,'” Musk recounted, revealing the extraordinary privileges he enjoys as the President’s favored advisor.
The SpaceX founder even bragged that Trump once called him late at night to encourage him to raid the White House kitchen for ice cream, joking, “Don’t tell RFK,” in reference to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has championed healthier eating.
As Musk claims to step back from his day-to-day DOGE responsibilities, his grip on America’s defense policy could be tightening.
