Elon Musk has found an original “explanation” (for lack of a better word) for the fact that Tesla is constantly being ignored by the Biden administration.
While the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has a sizable component pertaining to electric vehicles and Tesla is the undisputed EV leader in the US, White House officials have completely ignored the automaker’s existence or accomplishments in recent months during public appearances and on social media.
Last week, President Joe Biden attended GM’s Factory ZERO’s grand opening in Michigan, and said in his speech that “Detroit is leading the world in electric vehicles” and GM “electrified the entire automobile industry.”
His Twitter account also praised the 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup that Biden got to test drive, adding that “the future is electric, and it will be made right here in America.” For those who didn’t know, Tesla has been making EVs in the US for more than ten years now.
Vice President Kamala Harris echoed Joe Biden’s statements, tweeting that the US would be building EVs, including their batteries and parts, instead of relying on other countries. Much like Biden, she concluded that “the future will be made in America.”
These statements left the online EV community dumbfounded, but not lost for words. Many pointed out that the future is already being made in America by Tesla, for over a decade. Tesla CEO Elon Musk could not stay away and poked fun at the White House as well.
In a reply to a tweet that lamented “epic gaslighting by the White House,” he joked that Biden administration officials might be NPCs (non-player characters) that don’t have the word “Tesla” in their dialogue tree. Used in video games, NPCs are characters controlled by the computer instead of a player that have a predetermined set of behaviors.
Musk then followed up by challenging his followers to see if they could get the President and Vice President to say the word “Tesla.” This suggestion sparked a series of replies on Twitter and other social media platforms, including a suggestion for Musk to invite Joe Biden to the opening of Giga Texas; if the President declined the invitation, the user argued, Tesla could simply replace him with a life-sized cardboard cut-out. Another follower suggested a million-Tesla march on Washington, DC.
