‘Elon Musk Is a National Security Risk’: Retired Army General Sounds Alarm in Scathing New York Times Op-Ed: "Vivek Ramaswamy: “I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi

Jinping calls in the hour of need,” “the U.S. needs leaders who aren’t in China’s pocket.” What was Vivek saying? Then. Is this MEDIAiTE article just a smear or are serious questions being raised?

Bannon’s WarRoom on X: "Bannon: @ElonMusk, you’re calling the MAGA movement racist? How dare you. The coalition is building—Black and Hispanic families, and now you want to play the racism card? You think we’re going to tolerate that? We’re not. And I don’t care how big a check you wrote. https://t.co/RTyiuBTDYl" / X

'Musk Is National Security Risk': Retired Army General Sounds Alarm...

Elon Musk Security Risk: Lt. General Russell Honore NY Times

‘According to numerous interviews and remarks, Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency co-leader, Vivek Ramaswamy, once appeared to believe he was. In May 2023, Mr. Ramaswamy went so far as to publicly state, “I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need,” a reference to China’s leader. In a separate X post targeting Mr. Musk, he wrote, “the U.S. needs leaders who aren’t in China’s pocket.”

Mr. Ramaswamy has since walked back his numerous public criticisms of Mr. Musk, but he was right to raise concerns. According to news reports, Mr. Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, face federal reviews from the Air Force, the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General and the under secretary of defense for intelligence and security for failing to provide details of Mr. Musk’s meetings with foreign leaders and other potential violations of national-security rules.

These alleged infractions are just the beginning of my worries. Mr. Musk’s business ventures are heavily reliant on China. He borrowed at least $1.4 billion from banks controlled by the Chinese government to help build Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory, which was responsible for more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter of 2024.

China does not tend to give things away. The country’s laws stipulate that the Communist Party can demand intelligence from any company doing business in China, in exchange for participating in the country’s markets.’

Honoré is just getting started. What follows is a fairly compelling argument that the wealthiest individual in the world, with remarkably close relationships with global leaders of America’s fiercest enemies like China and Russia, has remarkable power as Trump’s close advisor, and offers that insight with little background checks and oversight. And he does so without having ever received a single American vote.

“The fact that Mr. Musk spent a quarter of a billion dollars to help re-elect Mr. Trump does not give the incoming White House the license to look the other way at the national security risks he may pose,” Honoré concludes. “If Mr. Trump and his appointees mean what they say about getting tough on America’s adversaries, then they will act on this matter without delay. There is too much at stake to ignore what’s right in front of them.”’