Are you content now, Elon?
Joe Biden mentioned the phrase “Tesla” for the primary time since taking workplace — after repeated complaints from CEO Elon Musk that the president has been unfairly ignoring the electrical automaker.
“Since 2021, firms have introduced investments totaling greater than $200 billion in home manufacturing right here in America, from iconic firms like GM and Ford constructing out new electrical car manufacturing to Tesla — our nation’s largest electrical car producer — to modern youthful firms like Rivian constructing electrical vans or Proterra constructing electrical buses,” Biden mentioned in a speech about US auto manufacturing on Tuesday. “We’re seeing the start of an American manufacturing comeback.”
In January, Musk complained about Tesla being omitted from a summit of US enterprise leaders that included the CEOs of Common Motors and Ford.
Specifically, Musk griped a few put up on Biden’s Twitter account that included a video of the president standing with GM CEO Mary Barra and declared that “firms like GM and Ford are constructing extra electrical automobiles right here at dwelling than ever earlier than.”
“Biden is treating the American public like fools,” Musk seethed on Jan. 27.
In one other put up that day, Musk wrote that Biden was a “damp [sock] in human type.”
“For causes unknown, @potus is unable to say the phrase ‘Tesla,’” Musk added in one other tweet days later, sharing a hyperlink to a fan-made petition asking Biden to “acknowledge Tesla for its arduous work.”
In the course of the January occasion that drew Musk’s ire, Biden stood alongside executives from Ford, GM and Stellantis whereas detailing his government order for half of all US automotive gross sales to be zero-emission automobiles by 2030.
Requested why Tesla was not included in that occasion, White Home press secretary Jen Psaki famous the three companies in attendance had been “the three largest employers of the United Auto Staff” — a sign that Tesla was snubbed as a result of its hourly workers aren’t unionized.
Tesla didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Extra reporting by Thomas Barrabi
