Joe Biden, left, and Elon Musk
Evelyn Hochstein | Reuters Andrew Harrier | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The runner Between President Joe Biden and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, it doesn’t look like a cooler is anytime soon.
Musk said no one was watching Biden after he didn’t mention the president Tesla During that State of the Union letter Tuesday.
“Nobody is watching the State of the Union,” Musk said in an email to CNBC. Biden promoted the combined investment of $18 billion by Ford and General Motors to build electric cars. TeslaAnd the Electric car giant, not mentioned in Biden’s address to the nation. Musk did not immediately respond to CNBC follow-up requests for comment.
Musk later tweeted directly to Biden, “Tesla has created over 50,000 American jobs building electric cars and is investing more than double GM + Ford together.”
The lack of mention of Biden in Musk’s recent comments comes after CNBC reported on the ongoing battle between the billionaire and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Musk, who also runs space exploration company SpaceX, is worth more than $235 billion, according to Forbes.
“Biden did it,” Musk previously told CNBC in an email exchange clearly Tesla shrugged, “noting that if he was ever invited to an event at the White House, the administration” had nothing to worry about. I will do the right thing. Musk has not yet attended Biden’s White House meeting with other corporate leaders, including those that include executives from Ford and General Motors.
Biden and senior White House officials privately signaled to their allies that they have no immediate plans to invite Musk to any upcoming meetings with top executives, according to people familiar with the matter. These people declined to be named in order to speak freely about private conversations.
Musk reprimanded the former president on Twitter, most recently in late January after meeting Biden general motors CEO Mary Barra and Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley at a briefing with other corporate leaders to discuss the President’s Build Back Better initiative, which has stalled in Congress. In his tweet, Musk described Biden as “a wet sock in human form.”
Behind the scenes, Musk’s criticism of the president and his team has only intensified, according to more than six people familiar with the matter.
Biden advisers have been particularly opposed to inviting Musk to future industry events, because they worry the outspoken CEO might say something that could embarrass the president or management, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
“Devoted student. Bacon advocate. Beer scholar. Troublemaker. Falls down a lot. Typical coffee enthusiast.”