The pick-me fight between President Joe Biden and Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues.
In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Biden praised Ford's $11 billion investment in electric vehicles, which would create 11,000 new U.S. jobs, he said. He also shouted out GM for investing roughly $7 billion in EVs, making room for 4,000 jobs in Michigan.
He did not mention Tesla, and Musk was not pleased.
“Tesla has created over 50,000 U.S. jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined,” he tweeted at Biden Tuesday night (or, rather, to the "person controlling this twitter”).
Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined\n\n[fyi to person controlling this twitter]— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1646190715
That’s not the first time Musk has criticized Biden in tweets and during other exchanges. Musk called Biden a “damp sock puppet” in late January, after he wasn’t invited to a White House meeting among business leaders. He told CNBC last month that Biden has ignored Tesla, and he would “do the right thing” if he was ever invited to a White House event. “They have nothing to worry about,” Musk said.
White House aides said Biden doesn’t mention Tesla because he considers the company anti-union, according to CNBC. He’s given Tesla a shout-out only once during his presidency, when talking about American manufacturing last month.