Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk said that United States (US) President Joe Biden "is treating the American public like fools" after Biden met with executives from rival car companies General Motors and Ford Motor earlier this week, Fox Business reported.
Musk also tweeted that "Biden is a damp [sock] puppet in human form," apparently miffed after the US president excluded Tesla's name in a Twitter post.
Biden invited GM CEO Mary Barra and Ford CEO Jim Farley to the White House along with other business leaders to discuss his administration's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation, which was stalled in the evenly split Senate after US Senator Joe Manchin, refused to support the legislation.
The massive spending bill would bump up the $7,500 tax credit to $12,500 for union-made electric vehicles and would also make GM and Tesla eligible for the existing tax credit again after they hit the 200,000-vehicle limit for the credit.
Biden touted GM's recent $7 billion investment in Michigan to ramp up electric vehicle production, Fox Business reported on Thursday.
"Companies like GM and Ford are building more electric vehicles here at home than ever before," the president tweeted after the meeting, prompting the response from Musk that Biden was treating the American public "like fools."
It is not the first time that Musk has taken shots at Biden. The electric vehicle pioneer said in September that the administration was "maybe a little biased" and "seems to be controlled by unions."
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