Joe Biden and Elon Musk have traded barbs about the health of the US economy after the Tesla boss said he had a “super bad” feeling about the future.
Mr Biden responded to the Tesla and SpaceX boss reportedly telling executives he wanted to cut 10 per cent of the electric vehicle company’s workforce, by saying “Lots of luck on his trip to the moon.”
The president’s joke came after he listed all the investments that other automakers were currently making in electric vehicle production plants across the US.
Mr Musk took to Twitter to post a Nasa story about the federal space agency picking SpaceX to land Americans on the Moon with the Artemis programme.
“Thanks Mr President!” he fired back in the caption.
It is not the first time that the two men have butted heads publicly. Mr Musk has reportedly been annoyed at the president’s lack of recognition for Tesla, while giving plaudits to legacy automakers. Mr Biden is reportedly unimpressed with the anti-union stance of the entrepreneur.
In January, Mr Musk called the president “a damp sock puppet in human form” for not inviting him to the White House for a meeting of business leaders.
Mr Musk’s warning about the economy came in an email to Tesla executives entitled ”pause all hiring worldwide”, according to Reuters.
Tesla, which employed around 100,000 people worldwide at the end of 2021, had 5,000 job postings on LinkedIn before the email, says CNN. The email came as Mr Musk warned all Tesla and SpaceX employees that they were required to spend “a minimum of 40 hours” in the office each week or lose their job.
Meanwhile, in a rare move the world’s richest person also endorsed billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso in the Los Angeles mayoral race to replace Eric Garcetti.
“It is rare for me to endorse political candidates,” Mr Musk tweeted.
“My political leanings are moderate, so neither fully Republican nor Democrat, which I am confident is the case for most Americans. Executive competence is super underrated in politics – we should care about that a lot more!
“Los Angeles is fortunate to have someone like Rick Caruso running for mayor. He’s awesome.”
The endorsement came just days before the California primary election and Mr Caruso thanked his fellow billionaire on Twitter for the support.
“Elon, thank you for your support,” he tweeted. “LA is the greatest city in the world. I would be honored to be her next mayor and serve the city that I love.”
SpaceX is based in Hawthorne, California, located in Los Angeles County’s South Bay area.
