WASHINGTON — A top-secret briefing for Elon Musk on the U.S. military’s plan for any war that might break out with China was called off after The New York Times reported late Thursday that it was about to happen. On Friday, President Donald Trump said that Musk should not be given access to the war plan.

Trump claimed Friday that a report in The New York Times, which detailed plans for Elon Musk to receive a briefing at the Pentagon on U.S. military plans for any prospective war with China, was “made-up” and “fake.”

The Times said afterward that it stood by the reporting in the article, which was first published on its website Thursday evening. The plan for Musk to receive the top-secret briefing was also reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Hours after the Times’ report, Trump denied that Musk would be briefed on the Pentagon’s military plans involving China. On Friday morning, Musk met for 80 minutes with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Times and the Journal reported that the briefing was changed to an unclassified meeting after coverage in the press.

Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump acknowledged the prospect of a conflict of interest were Musk to be briefed on the closely guarded military secrets. “Elon has businesses in China and he would be susceptible perhaps to that,” the president said.

But Trump claimed that the Times’ report “was a fake story” and that “it was meant to undermine whatever relationship the Pentagon has with Elon Musk.” He said he checked with his senior aides after reading the article and was told, “This is ridiculous.”

Trump went on to assail the Times in language that he has often deployed against news organizations when he is displeased with their coverage. “It’s such a dishonest newspaper, it’s such garbage,” he said of the Times. “They have fake sources, or they don’t have sources. I think they make most of it up.”

Providing Musk access to some of the nation’s most closely guarded military secrets would be a dramatic expansion of his already extensive role as an adviser to Trump and leader of his effort to slash spending and purge the government of people and policies they oppose.

It would also bring into sharp relief the questions about Musk’s conflicts of interest as he ranges widely across the federal bureaucracy while continuing to run businesses that are major government contractors. In this case, Musk, the billionaire CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, is a leading supplier to the Pentagon and has extensive financial interests in China.

The Times reported Thursday that Musk was originally going to visit the Tank, a secure conference room at the Pentagon, for a briefing with top military leaders about the China war plan, according to two U.S. officials.

A third said Musk was expected to discuss China but provided no details beyond that.

The top-secret briefing was to include Adm. Christopher W. Grady, the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, the head of the military’s Indo-Pacific Command; and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, briefing Musk on the details of U.S. efforts to counter China in the event of a military conflict, according to the two officials.

The discussion was expected to include other matters.

But the Tank visit was called off after the Times’ report on it, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Instead, Musk met with Hegseth and Grady in the defense secretary’s office.

Musk ultimately spent more than an hour with Hegseth, a remarkable amount of one-on-one exposure for an executive whose company has contracts with the Defense Department.

It was unclear how the originally planned briefing came about and whether Musk was aware of the extent of information he was set to be shown.

Trump made clear that the Times’ report had caught him by surprise, saying he called his White House chief of staff and Hegseth to ask about it; he said they said it was “ridiculous.” But he also said that Musk — who has extensive business in China — should not be made aware of such sensitive information.

“We don’t want to have a potential war with China, but I can tell you, if we did, we’re very well equipped to handle it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “But I don’t want to show that to anybody, but certainly you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much.”

It was one of the first specific statements from the president about what he would consider a bridge too far for Musk, who has expansive potential conflicts of interest created by a portfolio as a part-time government staff member and adviser.

Trump added, “He’s finding tremendous waste, fraud and abuse, but I certainly wouldn’t want — you know, Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that, but it was such a fake story.”