Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Joe Biden have a bit of an uneasy relationship. Musk appears to resent the fact that Biden almost never utters the word Tesla — even in the context of electric vehicles — though the reasons behind the omission are unclear.
Now, a report from CNBC sheds some light on why this is, though Musk’s response may not help in resolving the matter quickly. Citing people familiar with the matter, the news outlet says that the White House has no immediate plans to invite Musk to any meeting with senior executives out of fear that he might “embarrass the president.”
Such fears aren’t entirely unwarranted, given Musk’s odd sense of humor and that one occasion when he made fun of Biden for “still sleeping,” a likely reference to Trump’s jokes about “Sleepy Joe” Biden. In another tweet, Musk likened White House officials to NPCs (non-player characters, a gaming reference meaning in-game characters who are controlled by the computer), who simply cannot utter the word “Tesla.”
When CNBC contacted Musk about the story, he reportedly answered with an email containing two “roll on the floor laughing” emoji: 🤣🤣. But he also added that “they have nothing to worry about.”
“I would do the right thing,” said Musk.
The Tesla CEO also addressed the issues he has with the Biden administration, saying that he doesn’t “quite” have a feud with it.
“Biden has pointedly ignored Tesla at every turn and falsely stated to the public that GM leads the electric car industry, when in fact Tesla produced over 300,000 electric vehicles last quarter and GM produced 26,” he told CNBC. But he also said he has “nothing against Biden otherwise.”
It’s worth noting that earlier this month, Biden did acknowledge Tesla’s role in the booming U.S. electric vehicle industry, calling it “our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer.”
CNBC’s report doesn’t make it any clearer whether Musk will visit the White House anytime soon, though some within it are reportedly pushing to bring Musk to the table in order to discuss Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure package. Perhaps if Musk lays off the Twitter jokes for a while, the fabled meeting may finally happen.
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