Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently shared his economic anxieties and announced that he had to cut 10% of jobs at his electric car manufacturing company. He also warned about the risk of a recession while also ordering a hiring freeze and staff cuts that sent a high-profile direct message of its kind to the president.
In response, US President Joe Biden brushed off Musk's concerns and praised some of the carmaker's competitors for expanding their investments to making electric vehicles.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the recent mass shootings from the White House on June 02, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Biden to Musk: "Lots of Luck on His Trip to the Moon"
The solid jobs report released on Friday, June 3, reveals that the Labor Department recorded an additional 390,000 jobs in the US economy in May, which is a better figure than expected, while unemployment rates remain at 3.6%. According to a report in CNBC, Biden praised carmakers Ford and Stellantis in their plans of increasing their investments.
Ford is reportedly building its own line of electric vehicles that will create approximately 6,000 new jobs, hiring union employees in the Midwest. The former Chrysler corporation, Stellantis is also venturing into electric vehicles. Moreover, Biden said that Intel is also planning to add 20,000 new jobs as part of its investment in Ohio.
"So, you know, lots of luck on his trip to the moon," the news outlet quoted Biden as the president waved his hands.
Within minutes since Biden's remark, Musk tweeted his thanks to the president along with an April 2021 press release from NASA that announced that his SpaceX company was chosen to launch the next American astronauts on the Moon.
Biden's put-down is the latest point of friction between him and the Tesla CEO, who has recently become more open in criticizing the government and the president himself.
Musk Believes Landing Astronauts to the Lunar Surface is "Doable"
CNBC reported in 2021 that Musk is confident SpaceX could help NASA meet its ambitious goal of sending back astronauts to the Moon by 2024. He made the statement after SpaceX launched the Crew-2 mission on a trip to the International Space Station (ISS).
SpaceX has won the $2.9 billion contract from the American space agency under its Human Landing System program. It requires Musk's company to build a variation of its Starship rocket that will carry the astronauts to its trip to the Moon. SpaceX has already performed multiple successful flights of Starship in the past, although there are some problems with its landing.
The lunar mission is under NASA's Artemis program, which started during former US President Donald Trump and continued under President Biden's administration.
Musk has already expressed his thanks to the space agency, saying that it was an honor to be chosen to ferry humans back to the Moon after several decades since the last Apollo mission. The billionaire is optimistic that this will serve as a stepping stone in his plans of building a city on Mars to make humans a spacefaring civilization.
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