Washington DC - President Donald Trump was reportedly furious with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for inviting tech billionaire Elon Musk into a classified military briefing, sources suggest.

A new report from The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth's tenure in the DOD began to unravel when he got too close to then-Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk.

In mid-March, shortly before he became embroiled in controversies about his and other top national security leaders' use of the Signal messaging service, Hegseth reportedly invited Musk into a top-secret military briefing.

The invitation leaked to the media and eventually reached Trump, who was reportedly livid about what he saw as a serious conflict of interest due to Musk's business dealings in China, set to be the topic of the meeting.

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"Up until then, DOD had been the golden child," one source told the Atlantic, referring to Hegseth's tenure as the head of the Defense Department.

According to the source, Trump brusquely made it clear to Hegseth that the briefing invitation was "a bad look" and must not go ahead. He reportedly called it a "crazy and stupid" idea.

In public, however, Trump dismissed reports that Hegseth had invited Musk to top-secret meetings as "fake news" and went to lengths to defend the Defense Secretary, who was now embattled on multiple fronts.

Sadly for Hegseth, though, behind the scenes, things were starting to heat up with Trump, who suddenly found himself embroiled in multiple DOD-centered scandals at once.

The situation was reportedly made even worse by Hegseth's tendency to "flex" his position, stealing the spotlight from Trump and showing off his success.

"Things were heading in the right direction," the insider told The Atlantic. "But then the leaks and Signalgate just really f**ked up Pete."