Tesla CEO Elon Musk accused US President Joe Biden of “treating the American public like fools" after the POTUS met in the White House with executives from the electric vehicle maker’s rivals, General Motors (GM) and Ford Motor Company earlier this week.
Biden had gathered together GM CEO Mary Barra, Ford CEO Jim Farley and other business leaders to tout his administration's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation. The massive spending bill has stalled in the evenly-split Senate after a Democratic holdout, US Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., refused to support it.
The legislation would see the federal incentive for EV purchases soar, boosting the $7,500 tax credit to $12,500 for union-made electric vehicles. It would also render GM and Tesla eligible for the existing tax credit once more after they hit the 200,000-vehicle limit for the credit.
Biden, who touted GM's recent $7 billion investment in Michigan to ramp up EV production, tweeted after the White House meeting to say that companies like "GM and Ford are building more electric vehicles here at home than ever before".
Elon Musk was swift to respond that Biden was treating the American public "like fools".
The CEO of the world's largest EV maker, also based in the US, went on to tweet that "Biden is a damp [sock] puppet in human form" and hinted the name of his company that should have been mentioned, "Starts with a T, Ends with an A, ESL in the middle."
Many on social media appeared to agree with Elon Musk, slamming Joe Biden for his “ability to shamelessly lie to their eyes”.
Others suggested Musk might do well to refrain from making such comments as they were preventing him “from getting an invite to the party.”
Founded in 2003, California-headquartered Tesla – the industry leader - ranked as the most valuable automotive brand worldwide in 2021, with a growth rate over 157 percent.
On a global scale, Tesla's vehicle deliveries registered a record 627,350 units in the first three quarters of last year. Furthermore, Tesla's Model 3 - the world's top selling plug-in electric car (PEV) -in June 2021 became the first electric car to pass one million global sales.
On 26 January, Tesla reported record annual profits of $5.5 billion, including a fourth-quarter profit of $2.32 billion.
Major competitors for Tesla include traditional auto companies like Ford Motor Company and General Motors (GM).
It's not the first time that the South African-born American entrepreneur and business magnate, currently the world’s richest man, has taken shots at Joe Biden. Musk accused the US President of harbouring a bias against his electric car company and expressed the view that the current White House administration appears to be “controlled by unions”.
When asked at the Code Conference in California in September 2021 why he mocked the president in a tweet after Biden failed to acknowledge SpaceX’s completion of its first all-civilian mission, Musk said Biden was “not the friendliest”.
At the time, one of Musk’s Twitter followers pointed out that the White House and Biden had yet to comment on the mission.
Elon Musk responded by tweeting that the POTUS was “still asleep”.
He also mentioned an electric vehicle event hosted at the White House last August to which Tesla wasn’t invited, while GM, Ford, and Stellantis were.