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Elon Musk feels a bit forgotten – and wants President Joe Biden to know it.
The eccentric billionaire and Tesla “Technoking” said so in an interview at the tech industry top “Code Conference” in Beverly Hills, Calif. This week, blasting everyone from Biden to Jeff Bezos to financial regulators. in the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, with whom he fought publicly for years.
In particular, Musk seemed irritated by the fact that the Biden administration snubbed Tesla when hosting an electric vehicle summit at the White House in August – choosing instead to invite Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which was recently formed after a merger between Fiat. Chrysler and the PSA Group. Perhaps more importantly, the United Auto Workers Union was also present at the event – a group that does not share any particular love for Musk or Tesla after the electric vehicle maker recently ran a business. anti-union in its American factories.
“(They) didn’t mention Tesla once and praised GM and Ford for leading the electric vehicle revolution. Does that sound perhaps a little biased?” Musk told the tech reporter Kara Swisher at the conference. “Not the friendliest administration, seems to be controlled by the unions.”
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Musk has a long history of anti-union statements, putting him at odds with the president, who often speaks of the need to create “well-paying union jobs” in order to rebuild America’s middle class. He even caught the attention of the National Labor Relations Board in 2018 after he tweeted that employees would lose their stock options if they tried to organize, which the NLRB claims was illegal. He was then forced to delete the tweet and reinstate a Tesla union organizer who had been fired.
When asked if Tesla had been snubbed over Musk’s anti-union stances last month, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “Well, these are the three biggest employers in the world. United Auto Workers, so I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. “
Musk also expressed disappointment that Biden never congratulated him or his company, SpaceX, after a successful private space flight that raised more than $ 100 million for charity.
But Musk didn’t stop at Biden, using his Code Conference appearance to spit fire into several ongoing oxen – including one with fellow billionaire and spaceflight enthusiast Jeff Bezos.
The latest row between the two businessmen came after Bezos’ aircraft company Blue Origin sued NASA after handing over a nearly $ 3 billion contract to Musk and SpaceX.
Musk admitted to Swisher that he had “not verbally” spoken with Bezos about the budding legal battle, although he admitted to under-tweeting his rival from time to time.
“You cannot continue on your way to the moon no matter how good your lawyers are,” Musk added.
In response, Amazon sent tech site The Verge a 13-page list of government lawsuits and petitions that SpaceX filed – apparently to argue that Musk was also trying to continue on his way to the moon.
“Attached is a list of some of the times SpaceX has sued the US government over procurement issues and protested various government decisions,” wrote a spokesperson for the company’s satellite arm, Project Kuiper. , at The Verge. “It is difficult to reconcile their own historical record with their recent stance on others filing similar actions.”
Musk, who co-founded online payment giant PayPal in 1999, also got a final blow against U.S. financial regulators, who he says should take a hands-off approach to regulating cryptocurrencies – a burning issue on Capitol Hill. Hill right now.
Musk, who at one point admitted he was no cryptocurrency expert, is nonetheless a thought leader in space: Tesla announced in February that he would make a billion bet. of dollars on Bitcoin, accepting the popular cryptocurrency as a form of payment. for its electric vehicles.
Since then, Musk has become a star in the nascent market, driving prices up – or plummeting – with each of his tweets.
Swisher asked about the phenomenon and if being able to cause this kind of volatility is a good thing.
“Yes [the price of bitcoin] go up, I guess it does, he said with a smile.
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