• President Joe Biden took a swipe at Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
  • Biden wished the world's richest man "lots of luck on his trip to the moon."
  • The president also immediately brought up Ford's electric vehicle program.

In an escalation of the simmering feud between President Joe Biden and billionaire Elon Musk, the president mocked the SpaceX CEO's plans for a return to lunar exploration.

"So, you know, lots of luck on his trip to the moon," Biden said of Musk, the world's richest man. "I mean, I don't know."

NASA awarded Musk and SpaceX a nearly $3 billion contract to build a lunar landing system to return American astronauts to the moon, though the project has been beset by delays early on.

Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and the incoming owner of Twitter, has been airing grievances with Biden and his administration — particularly over its approach to electric vehicle policy — for well over a year.

At Biden's Friday press conference from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, he responded to a question about Musk's pessimistic outlook on the economy by immediately touting Ford's electric vehicle program. 

"Well, let me tell ya, while Elon Musk is talking about that, Ford is increasing their investment overwhelmingly," Biden said. "I think Ford is increasing the investment in building new electric vehicles, 6,000 new employees — union employees, I might add — in the Midwest."

Ford announced plans earlier this year to boost their electric vehicle production to 600,000 by 2023, while Tesla — the biggest EV manufacturer in the industry — shipped more than 930,000 in 2021, according to CNBC.

Unlike Ford, Tesla is not a union shop. Biden ran on his strong ties with labor unions throughout the 2020 presidential campaign and picked up several key endorsements during the Democratic primary.

Musk complained about not being invited to the White House's electric vehicle summit last summer, and described Biden in January as a "damp sock puppet in human form" after the president highlighted General Motors and Ford expanding their EV operations without mentioning Tesla. 

The SpaceX CEO responded to Biden's remarks on Twitter, which he is still in the process of trying to purchase with money borrowed against his shares of Tesla.

"Thanks Mr [sic.] President!" Musk tweeted, linking to NASA's announcement on partnering with SpaceX for its Artemis program to land a pair of Americans on the moon again at an estimated cost of $2.89 billion.

Read the original article on Business Insider