President Joe Biden took a dismissive jab at Elon Musk over reports that the mogul has a “super bad feeling” about the American economy.
“Lots of luck on his trip to the moon,” a sarcastic Biden said at a press conference Friday when asked about Musk’s reported views.
The president’s comments came hours after Reuters reported that Musk told executives at Tesla that he wants to axe 10% of the automaker’s 100,000-person workforce due to his gloomy view on the future of the economy.
When asked about Musk’s dour outlook — as well as similar pessimism from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon — Biden struck a more optimistic tone and touted recent investments from other automakers.
“While Elon Musk is talking about that, Ford is increasing their investment overwhelmingly,” Biden said, referencing Ford’s announcement on Thursday that it plans to add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio.
Biden also touted new manufacturing investments from Chrysler parent Stellantis and computer chipmaker Intel before taking the lunar-themed jab at Musk.
In response to a clip of Biden’s comments on Twitter, Musk wrote, “Thanks Mr President!” and included a link to a 2021 NASA press release about the space agency selecting SpaceX to work on a future lunar mission.
Musk has been an outspoken critic of Biden in the past, claiming that Biden favors automakers like Ford and General Motors because he is “captured by the unions” that represent workers in their factories.
He has also criticized the president for “not getting much done” and even compared him to “Anchorman” character Ron Burgundy due to his use of teleprompters.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
