President Joe Biden ridiculed billionaire Elon Musk on Friday for expressing his doubts about the future of the economy.
“Lots of luck on his trip to the moon,” Biden said. “I mean, I don’t know.”
Biden was asked by reporters about Musk’s message to his subordinates at Tesla asking them to enact a hiring freeze at the company and cut ten percent of jobs, citing a “super bad feeling” about the economy.
Biden responded to Musk by noting that Ford Motor Company was investing more in the United States to produce electric vehicles with high-paying “union jobs.”
Musk responded to Biden’s taunt on social media:
Thanks Mr President!https://t.co/dCcTQLsJTp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2022
NASA announced Friday they had chosen Musk’s SpaceX company to land the next group of Americans on the moon.
But Biden and Musk have an uneasy relationship as the president has refused to feature Teslas in his push to shift Americans to electric vehicles.
The president prefers to be seen promoting Detroit automakers like Ford and General Motors because they hire union labor for their factories in the United States.
Musk told CNBC in February that he was willing to go to the White House to promote his company and electric vehicles with Biden but that the president refused to even acknowledge Tesla.
“Biden has pointedly ignored Tesla at every turn and falsely stated to the public that GM leads the electric car industry, when in fact Tesla produced over 300,000 electric vehicles last quarter and GM produced 26,” Musk said.
Musk also mocked Biden in May for being overly scripted and reliant on the teleprompter.
“The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter. The path to power is the path to the teleprompter. I do feel like if somebody were to accidentally lean on the teleprompter, it’s going to be like ‘Anchorman,’” Musk said, referring to a scene in the comedy film starring Will Ferrell.
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