Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have a “super bad feeling” about the economy, but President Joe Biden isn’t too concerned about the billionaire’s feelings.
“Lots of luck on his trip to the moon,” shrugged Biden, literally throwing his hands up in the air, at a press conference on Friday after being asked about Musk’s comments about the economy. Recently released internal Tesla emails reveal that Musk has plans to cut around 10 percent of the electric car company’s workforce.
Musk’s reason for wanting to do so? He said the current state of the economy gave him a “super bad feeling.”
While Biden’s moon comment is currently getting all the attention, what the president said before was actually much more excoriating of Musk. After being presented with Musk’s feelings on the economy by a reporter, Biden proceeded to share plans from companies like Ford and IBM that are currently making further investments in the country.
Biden’s Ford comments were especially pointed at Musk.
“Ford is increasing their investment in building new electric vehicles,” Biden said. “6,000 new employees, new union employees I may add, in the Midwest.”
The president’s comments come just one day after CNBC uncovered that Tesla hired a PR firm to monitor Tesla employees on Facebook during a push to unionize. Musk has long been an opponent of unions.
SpaceX, Musk’s space transportation company, does indeed have plans to go to the moon in the coming years. It’s part of a NASA-funded program that provided SpaceX with $2.9 billion.
“Thanks Mr. President!” replied Musk on Twitter, along with including a link to NASA’s announcement from when it picked SpaceX for its next moon-landing expedition.
Musk may try his hardest to spin Biden’s “trip to the moon” comment in his favor, but the billionaire has got nothing on Biden’s comments about Ford and its unionized workforce.
