Pete Hegseth Taps Elon Musk for New Trump Administration Role — One Year After Dramatic DOGE Exit
Pete Hegseth named Elon Musk to co-lead Project Meridian.
Oct. 1 2026, Published 5:00 p.m. ET
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has named Elon Musk to co-lead a Pentagon study of future warfare, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
It will be the billionaire's first formal government role since he left the Department of Government Efficiency in late May 2025 and publicly split with President Trump the following month.
Elon Musk Joins Panel For Project Meridian
Hegseth named Musk, Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich to co-direct Project Meridian.
Hegseth announced the initiative, Project Meridian, during his State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. Musk will co-direct it with Palmer Luckey, founder of the defense company Anduril, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The review will run under former Uber executive Emil Michael, who is now the Pentagon's undersecretary for research and engineering and chief technology officer.
The Defense Department said the goal is identifying "the capabilities required to achieve absolute technological dominance on the next-generation battlefield."
Hegseth said advances in artificial intelligence, autonomy, directed energy, robotics and biotechnology "will profoundly alter the character of warfare," and that the mandate stretches "from under the Earth to beyond the moon."
SpaceX Already Has National Security Ties
The 120-day study covers domains from underground to beyond the moon.
SpaceX holds long-running national security launch work and operates the Starlink satellite network used in defense and security missions.
Anduril builds autonomous systems and has won Pentagon contracts tied to missiles, aircraft, and intelligence hardware. Luckey has also said the company is developing subterranean systems, a domain Hegseth explicitly mentioned for the initiative.
Elon Musk's Last Government Stint
Musk left DOGE in May 2025 and publicly split with Trump the next month.
Musk's last government post began on Inauguration Day in January 2025, when Trump created DOGE by executive order and made him its leader as a special government employee. That status capped his service at 130 days, and he left at the end of May 2025.
Days later, on June 5, Musk and Trump got into a public feud with each other.
Musk had spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars backing Trump's campaign. DOGE's charter expired on July 4, 2026, and by then its work had already been folded into the Office of Management and Budget.
Pete Hegseth Announced Multiple Initiatives
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Hegseth also set a 20 percent cut in general and admiral jobs.
Hegseth also confirmed plans to cut 20 percent of positions designated for generals and admirals, and he announced a four-star Autonomous Warfare Command to scale robotic systems across the force.
He said Defense Innovation Unit director Owen West and a Navy SEAL Senior Chief Max Strasiser are guiding Project Agincourt, the interim step meant to pave the way for Autonomous Warfare Command.
The former Fox News personality also described a new Office of Religious Affairs and a plan for the first new major U.S. military installation in about 40 years.
