Elon Musk Reassures Biden Over Possible Embarrassment Despite Tesla Snub

While Elon Musk has not been invited to the White House, he has reassured President Joe Biden's team that he wouldn’t do anything to embarrass him if he was, despite his recent snubs of Tesla.

Musk told CNBC via email that he informed concerned White House officials that he would not do or say something embarrassing if he were invited to speak at a White House event. He told CNBC, “They have nothing to worry about. I would do the right thing.”

The reassurance by Musk comes amid reports from CNBC that Biden and the White House have no immediate plans to invite the Tesla (TSLA) CEO to any potential upcoming meetings with corporate auto leaders.

Musk has had a feud brewing for some time with Biden, who has ignored Tesla as one of the top EV makers in the U.S. and instead has turned his focus to Ford and GM.

Musk told CNBC, “The notion of a feud is not quite right. Biden has pointedly ignored Tesla at every turn and falsely stated to the public that GM leads the electric car industry, when, in fact, Tesla produced over 300,000 electric vehicles last quarter and GM produced 26.”

Tesla reported Q4 global EV deliveries that topped 305,000 while GM’s U.S. electric vehicle sales included one Hummer pickup truck and 25 Bolt EVs during the same quarter, CNBC reported.

Musk has criticized Biden for ignoring Tesla throughout his term when mentioning electric vehicle makers.

Musk reminded Biden twice last week with two tweets that Tesla’s Model 3 was the most American-made car in 2021 when the president tweeted about electric federal government vehicles bringing more manufacturing jobs to the U.S. and expanding supply chains in the country.

Musk forwarded a report from USA Today showing Tesla’s No. 1 ranking in Cars.com American-Made Index survey and followed that up with another tweet that read, “Model 3 is literally the most made in America car in – well, of course – America.”

The billionaire, who has a net worth of $212 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, has slammed Biden on multiple occasions for his lack of acknowledgment of Tesla as an EV maker.

Musk called the president a “damp sock puppet in human form” in January following a video Biden posted on Twitter saying Ford and GM were producing more electric vehicles in the U.S. "than ever before.”

Musk hit back again with another tweet at Biden reminding him that Tesla “Starts with a T, Ends with an A, ESL in the middle.”

Biden did mention Tesla in February for the first time, calling the automaker “our nation’s largest electric-vehicle manufacturer.”

Musk told CNBC, “It got to the point, hilariously, where no one in the administration was even allowed to say the word ‘Tesla’! The public outrage and media pressure about that statement forced him to admit that Tesla does, in fact, lead the EV industry. I wouldn’t exactly call that ‘praise.' ”

A White House spokesperson did tell CNBC that “Tesla has done extraordinary things for electric vehicles, and that's a big part of why the whole industry now knows EVs are the future.”

However, the spokesperson hedged by saying, “Tesla also benefited greatly from past EV tax credits, but unfortunately, their CEO has suggested an opposition to new EV tax credits.”

As of Wednesday premarket hours, shares of Tesla were trading at $836.80, up $15.27, or 1.86%.