Elon Musk to Speak to West Point Cadets

Elon Musk to Speak to West Point Cadets - The New York Times

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Elon Musk to Speak to West Point Cadets

The billionaire owner of the social media platform X and Tesla’s chief executive will deliver the keynote speech at an annual event.

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X and Tesla’s chief executive, will deliver the keynote speech at the annual convocation of the United States Military Academy next Friday, West Point officials said.

The speech is billed as a “fireside chat,” and attendance for West Point cadets and faculty is not mandatory, officials said. The event will be part of the academic year’s intellectual theme, “The Human and the Machine: Leadership on the Emerging Battlefield,” according to a statement provided by the academy.

“West Point routinely invites prominent thought leaders in areas related to the theme to enhance our robust academic and professional development opportunities,” the statement said.

Mr. Musk’s company SpaceX handles launch services for spy and command-and-control satellites for the Pentagon and provides internet service for Ukraine. It has received $14.7 billion in federal launch contracts over the past decade.

Last month, Mr. Musk broke with a pattern set by the leaders of other major social media firms by endorsing a presidential candidate. Some 30 minutes after Mr. Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania, Mr. Musk announced that he was backing his bid for the White House.

“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Mr. Musk wrote on X, sharing a video of Mr. Trump. He later endorsed Mr. Trump’s choice of JD Vance as a running mate.

In recent years, Mr. Musk has been criticized for embracing conspiracy theories and for his strident positions in cultural debates.

The White House denounced him last year for boosting an anti-Jewish conspiracy theory on X, calling his actions an “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate.”

Mr. Musk has had close associations with U.S. military academies. In April 2022, he visited the Air Force Academy and told throngs of cadets at a lecture that they should fight the discouragement that researchers encounter.

“Prototypes are easy; production is hard,” he said. “We remember mistakes more than successes.”

Mr. Musk attended the Army-Navy game in December at Gillette Stadium near Boston, tweeting a photo of himself with the caption “God Bless America.”

Retired Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton, a West Point graduate and senior adviser to VoteVets, a progressive veterans advocacy group, criticized his alma mater’s move.

“Elon Musk is not a thought leader,” he said. “He is far from the example we should be elevating at our military academies. Why is West Point doing this?”

Mr. Musk could not be reached for comment.

Helene Cooper is a Pentagon correspondent. She was previously an editor, diplomatic correspondent and White House correspondent. More about Helene Cooper

Elon Musk,
United States Military Academy

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