Biden's SOTU Triggers More Bashing From Elon Musk

Tesla CEO, who's long had a beef with president, was apparently torqued Tesla wasn't mentioned
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 2, 2022 7:37 AM CST
Musk Slams Biden's SOTU: 'Nobody Is Watching'
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is seen in Washington on March 9, 2020.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Iowa's governor wasn't the only one to take aim at President Biden's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. Elon Musk, who's long irked Biden's team for his constant criticism of the White House, didn't seem happy that during the annual address Biden neglected to mention Musk's company Tesla as he talked about automakers that had made big investments in electric vehicles. Musk's reaction, according to an email he fired off to CNBC: "Nobody is watching the State of the Union." The Tesla and SpaceX CEO also took his beef to Twitter, responding to a Biden tweet touting the investments made by Ford and GM.

"Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined [fyi to person controlling this twitter]," Musk griped. The disgruntled CEO has noted to CNBC in the past that Biden "has pointedly ignored Tesla," which doesn't seem far from the truth: Sources tell the outlet that Biden and senior officials at the White House have said they have no intention of extending an invite to Musk anytime in the near future for fear Musk will embarrass Biden.

Musk has said he would "do the right thing" if he were ever to attend a White House event, but considering he called Biden "a damp [sock puppet] in human form" just over a month ago, perhaps it's understandable why he's not at the top of the president's invite list. After the sock puppet insult, Biden did throw Musk a crumb, acknowledging in an early February speech about electric vehicles that Tesla is the "our nation's largest electric-vehicle manufacturer," per Insider. (More Elon Musk stories.)

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