President Joe Biden has scorned Tesla founder Elon Musk after the tech boss cited a “super bad feeling” about the economy amid plans to slash jobs.
Speaking on Friday, the US President pointed out that while the electric carmaker said it needed to axe one in 10 jobs, rival Ford was “overwhelmingly” increasing investment.
“While Elon Musk is talking about that [reservations about the economy], Ford is increasing their investment, overwhelmingly,” Biden said.
“I think Ford is increasing the investment in building new electric vehicles. Six thousand employees – union employees, I might add.”
Biden also pointed to investment into electric vehicles by Michigan-based automobile giant Chrysler, and investment into computer chips by Californian tech giant Intel.
The President also made a biting joke, wishing the eccentric billionaire “lots of luck on his trip to the moon.”
Responding on Twitter, the social media platform Musk is hoping to poach in a $44bn deal, the tech boss said “Thanks Mr President!”
Musk shared a link to NASA’s April 2021 award of a $2.9bn contract to Musk’s SpaceX to build a spacecraft to bring astronauts to the moon.
The comments come after Musk sent an email to Tesla executives, with the heading “pause all hiring worldwide.”
Reports of the job cuts sent shares in Tesla hurtling by more than nine per cent.
It comes days after Musk urged Tesla staff to return to the office or face the sack.
In a letter leaked earlier this week by Whole Mars blog, the eccentric billionaire told staff that they are now expected to spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office or be fired.
“This is less than we ask of factory workers”, he wrote. “If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly.”
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