Merging SpaceX with a public company like Tesla would create a lot of issues for the classified projects SpaceX does.

What sort of issues are you thinking?

Plenty of defense contractors with classified projects are already publicly listed, so this is not uncharted territory.

Lockhead Martin for example: https://investors.lockheedmartin.com/news-releases/news-rele...

Gives this level of detail:

> Aeronautics classified program losses $(950)

> MFC classified program losses -

It seems very safe from a national security perspective.

No? Almost every big defense contractor is publicly traded.

I imagine those are surmountable challenges. Boeing somehow manages.

But more likely that merger would consist of SpaceX acquiring Tesla and taking it private

Raytheon is public.