Who will you believe: the richest man in the world or the president with plummeting poll numbers?
Billionaire Elon Musk has such a “super bad feeling” about the US economy under President Biden that he plans to lay off about 10% of the workers at his electric car company Tesla, it was revealed on Friday.
Biden responded with sarcasm to the tech mogul’s bleak prospects – and then took a jab at his SpaceX company’s upcoming mission.
“Good luck on his trip to the moon,” Biden said of Musk during an extended weekend trip to his beach house in Delaware.
Musk tweeted back with a link to a 2021 NASA press release about SpaceX winning a $2.89 billion contract to send the next American astronauts to the Moon, to prepare for an eventual trip to Mars, where Musk plans to start a human colony.
“Thank you, Mr. President!” he added.
Biden brushed off Musk’s criticism of the US economy.AP
The war of words erupted amid Musk’s new status as the No. 1 enemy of progressives, who are furious that he plans to buy Twitter and turn it into an unregulated free speech platform that advocates say that it would give conservative views a foothold on the liberal-dominated social media site.
On April 15, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) sarcastically wished Musk a “Happy Tax Day,” noting that he reportedly paid no federal income tax in 2018 — though he said he would pay a record $11 billion for his 2021 year US dollars pay merits.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has also accused Musk of having “an ego issue” and told Bloomberg last week she wants to trade her Tesla Model 3 for an electric vehicle owned by unionized workers.
Musk is an outspoken opponent of labor unions, recently tweeting that he plans to no longer vote for the Democrats “because they have become the party of division and hate so I can no longer support them and will vote Republicans.” .
“Now look at how their dirty tricks unfold against me,” he added.
Musk said he will be voting for Republicans.AP in the near future
On Friday, Reuters said it had received emails showing Musk had urged Tesla executives on Thursday to “pause all hiring worldwide.”
In a follow-up email to employees, Musk said the company will reduce its headcount by 10% because it is “overstaffed in many areas,” but that “the number of hourly workers will increase,” according to Reuters .
“Note that this does not apply to someone who actually builds cars, builds battery packs, or installs solar panels,” Musk allegedly said.
Tesla and its subsidiaries employed nearly 100,000 people last year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that doesn’t break down the number of white-collar and hourly workers.
Musk’s emails followed repeated warnings from him that the US was at risk of recession.
“Elon Musk has a uniquely deep insight into the global economy. We believe a message from him would have high credibility,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a report.
Musk announced Friday that he plans to lay off about 10% of Tesla employees. REUTERS
And while demand for Teslas and other electric vehicles has remained strong, analyst Frank Schwope of German bank NordLB said, “It’s always better to introduce austerity in good times than in bad times.”
“I see the statements as a warning and precautionary measure,” added Schwope.
Other top executives are also warning of the possibility of a US recession amid inflation, which rose to 8.5% last month, the highest in more than 40 years.
“This hurricane is headed straight for us,” JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said Wednesday.
Biden — who garnered a dismal 40% approval rating in a Rasmussen Reports poll on Friday — contrasted Musk’s company cuts with Ford’s announcement Thursday that it plans to create 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio to boost electric vehicle production.
“As Elon Musk talks about it, Ford is overwhelmingly increasing its investments,” he said.
Biden noted that the new hires “would be union employees, I might add.”
The president also promoted the May jobs report released by the Labor Department on Friday, saying the US had “posted the most robust recovery in modern history.”
“The job market is the strongest since World War II,” he claimed.
The monthly statistics showed that the country’s employers continued their hiring streak, adding 390,000 jobs and keeping the unemployment rate at 3.6%, just over half a century low.
But while job growth remained steady, the May figure marked its lowest monthly gain in a year and stock market indexes fell on expectations that the Federal Reserve would hike interest rates again to ease inflation.
The Fed’s moves have already caused mortgage rates to rise, depressing home sales and raising borrowing costs for businesses looking to invest in new buildings and equipment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden has been pressed on the issue of inflation, a key factor behind his pathetic poll numbers.
“There’s no denying that prices, especially for gas and food, are real issues,” he said.
“I understand that families who are struggling probably don’t care why prices have gone up. They just want to bring her down.”
Patrick Ruffini, a partner at Echelon Insights, said that with the November midterm elections approaching, high inflation has led more voters to favor Republican policies of cutting government spending and increasing oil and gas production.
Voters also want “political leadership,” Ruffini said.
“For a long time, the Biden administration didn’t even seem to acknowledge the problem,” he said.
With mail wires