Things were going fine for Pete Hegseth, right up until a chance encounter with the world’s richest man. His pursuit of Donald Trump’s agenda at the Pentagon had made him a star among the president’s advisers. The former Fox News host had moved swiftly to roll back diversity initiatives in the military and to expand U.S. troops’ role in halting immigration at the southern border. His willingness to challenge Republican orthodoxy on foreign policy and punch back at critics was seen as an asset as Trump began his second term.

But then, in mid-March, Hegseth bumped into Elon Musk in a White House hallway, and extended an ill-fated invitation to the tech titan for an exclusive military briefing.

“Up until then, DOD had been the golden child,” one person familiar with Hegseth’s office told us

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