Elon Musk visited the National Security Agency on Wednesday for a meeting with the spy agency’s leadership, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper reports that Musk’s discussion centered on “staff reductions and operations,” which is entirely unsurprising, given the billionaire oligarch’s ongoing destruction of the U.S. government with the blessing of President Donald Trump.
The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed NSA officials, who say it “isn’t clear” whether Musk asked about any intelligence or military operations that may be deemed sensitive. Musk has a high-level security clearance, a point of controversy given the billionaire’s history of drug use and secret phone conversations with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
The NSA told the Wall Street Journal that Musk met with chief Gen. Timothy Haugh, who took the job in 2023 during Joe Biden’s administration. In a statement to Gizmodo, an NSA spokesperson said: “Yesterday, Gen Timothy Haugh, Commander, USCYBERCOM, Director, NSA/Chief, CSS, hosted Elon Musk during his first visit to NSA/CSS Washington in his capacity as Special Advisor to the President of the United States. NSA and CYBERCOM are focused on the President, SECDEF and DNI’s priorities; meetings with key advisors ensure we are aligned.”
Musk has previously criticized the NSA, tweeting March 6 that the NSA “needs an overhaul,” attaching a graphic depicting a group of college-aged people and a list of universities where the agency would be doing recruitment.
The NSA needs an overhaul pic.twitter.com/93TnOIUIOy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2025
If you’re confused why this seemingly innocuous graphic would inspire Musk to tweet about the need for an “overhaul,” you can just read the comments from X users, who all seem to be incensed that people who aren’t white and/or male are being recruited for jobs at the NSA.
“Are there any straight white men in that photo?” one of the top comments reads. The mere presence of anyone who isn’t a straight white man is taken as a great affront to the MAGA movement, which has been purging even the mention of anything deemed insufficiently straight, white, and male, from government websites.
Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been taking a metaphorical chainsaw to the federal government, something that turned into a literal chainsaw during an appearance at CPAC last month, where Musk slurred his words, his eyes seeming to be glassy and bloodshot. There were countless calls for Musk to lose his security clearance over alleged drug abuse during Joe Biden’s presidency, but NASA claimed there was no evidence that the SpaceX founder was using illicit substances.
The 53-year-old Tesla CEO has admitted to using ketamine and appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast smoking marijuana, but reporting from the Wall Street Journal last year included allegations that Musk was also using cocaine, LSD, and psychedelic mushrooms. Musk has previously defended his use of ketamine as beneficial to investors, despite reports that many people at his companies are concerned about his drug use.
President Trump has tasked Musk with hollowing out the government, aiming for $2 trillion in cuts, and the billionaire has reported conflicting numbers on how much he’s actually done away with. Importantly, nothing Musk is doing appears to be legal, as he dismantled USAID and now branches out to make cuts at the IRS and Social Security. The tech mogul suggested at a recent cabinet meeting that he alone gets to decide what gets cut in the government, something that violates laws which are supposed to ensure Congress makes those decisions. Even worse, Musk’s many conflicts of interest as the head of Tesla and SpaceX make the billionaire appear to be self-dealing.
SpaceX is known to have existing contracts with other U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Reconnaissance Office, but there are no known existing contracts with the NSA. But even if there’s no money to be made, Musk’s mission is clearly much larger than just financial gain. The oligarch, who spent Trump’s first day in office giving what looked like two Nazi salutes, clearly has an ideological project to make the U.S. more white and male-dominated. (Musk denied he was doing Nazi salutes, but only much later on Joe Rogan’s podcast.)
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