Elon Musk’s mother mocks Biden, Harris and Buttigieg for ignoring Tesla in electric car push

Trolling the Biden administration has become a Musk family affair.

Maye Musk, son Elon Musk and his sister Tosca Musk have been trading barbs at Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg for the past four days after the White House excluded Tesla from recent events to promote electric vehicles.

Ms Musk dropped a series of laugh and zany face emojis on Twitter after the president praised General Motors and its CEO for leading the United State’s electric vehicle industry, saying the company "electrified the entire auto industry".

"Biden’s speech was written 20 years ago, just before GM killed the electric car," Ms Musk tweeted, referencing the year GM cancelled its electric car programme due to weak sales.

"His speechwriter uploaded the wrong file."

Mr Musk responded with a "sigh", while his sister, Tosca Musk, joined the family by adding, "What mon said. AF".

The day after Mr Biden delivered the comments at the opening of the new electric vehicle plant Factory Zero plant in Detroit, GM confirmed to The Detroit News that production of its Chevrolet Bolt EV would be shut down for the rest of 2021.

Mr Musk commented on the news "Transforming America!", in an apparent reference to the Biden administration’s praise of GM being a driving force behind the electric vehicle industry.

Following Mr Biden’s apparent snub of Tesla, Ms Musk has spent the past week highlighting a pattern among senior White House officials seemingly ignoring Tesla’s role in electrifying the auto industry.

When Kamala Harris tweeted that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law would allow electric vehicles to be built with batteries and parts in the United States rather than other countries, Ms Musk re-tweeted comments that “Tesla is the most American car you can buy”.

She also re-tweeted comments that it was “epic gaslighting” by the White House to first snub Tesla then now pretend the “union payoff” will be responsible for the electric vehicle revolution.

Mr Musk added that the administration might be made up of NPCs and that Tesla may not be in their "dialogue tree", referencing the Non-Player Character meme that represents people who don’t think for themselves, like scripted characters in a videogame.

"Let’s see if we can get them to say the word ‘Tesla!’," Mr Musk said.

Ms Musk continued that the vice president may need to be kept updated like the administration’s transport secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

Mr Buttigieg was challenged by CNBC in August as to why Tesla and Mr Musk were not invited to the White House alongside GM, Ford and Stellantis when Mr Biden announced new support for clean vehicles.

“I’m not sure,” Mr Buttigieg said when asked on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

Mr Musk tweeted at the time that it “seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited”, and his mother repeated the observation in light of the apparent airbrushing of Tesla from the president’s latest event.

"As the new Secretary of Transportation @PeteButtigieg needs to know about @Tesla. Can anyone update @SecretaryPete," Ms Musk tweeted.

She followed up to tweet a video of Tesla and with a video of Tesla saying she would share it with Mr Biden, Ms Harris and Mr Buttigieg so "they can’t say they don’t know about this American #EV company".

After Mr Musk was conspicuously absent from White House’s electric vehicle summit earlier this year, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked if Tesla was excluded because its employees were not part of a union.

"I’ll let you draw your own conclusion," Ms Psaki said.

Mr Musk hinted at his conclusion during the Code Conference in California in September, asking if their actions sounded "maybe a little biased?"

"Biden held this EV summit — didn’t invite Tesla. Invited GM, Ford, Chrysler, and [United Auto Workers Union]. An EV summit at the White House. Didn’t mention Tesla once, and praised GM and Ford for leading the EV revolution,” Mr Musk said Tuesday.

“Not the friendliest administration, seems to be controlled by unions,” he added.

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