Washington DC - President Donald Trump was reportedly surprised and "unhappy" when he found out about plans for Elon Musk to be briefed on preparations for a potential war with China.

In a deep-dive on Musk's time at the pinnacle of US political power, the Wall Street Journal revealed Trump was "unhappy" about plans to brief Musk on China, and even privately warned of conflicts of interest.

The report originally emerged in mid-March, revealing that Musk was set to view a 20-30 slide briefing on how the US planned to react if a war were to break out with China.

At the time, Trump lashed out at "Fake News" on social media and accused The New York Times, which broke the story, of being a failing newspaper.

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"China will not even be mentioned or discussed," Trump insisted. "How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue!"

Musk still ended up meeting with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth despite the reports, and while it is believed they discussed China, the tech billionaire was allegedly not provided with top-secret plans.

Ultimately, it's been reported that Trump objected to Musk being given access to such highly sensitive data largely because he saw Tesla's operations in China as a major conflict of interest.

While he has officially only taken on an informal advisory role, Musk has played a huge part in Trump's first few months back in office, laying off thousands of federal workers as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

In recent days, it has been rumored that Musk may soon be stepping down from his position and returning to his businesses.