Elon Musk said he cannot envision himself voting for President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.
“I think I would not vote for Biden,” Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., said Wednesday at the New York Times Dealbook conference. He’d been asked if he could see himself casting a ballot for Biden in a hypothetical matchup with former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner.
Asked if that meant he would vote for Trump, Musk demurred. “I’m not saying I’d vote for Trump,” he added with an audible sigh. “This is definitely a difficult choice here.”
Musk has said he voted for Biden, a Democrat, in 2020 but the two men have had a contentious relationship since the president took office.
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Biden has rarely mentioned Musk or Tesla, the world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer, even when discussing issues involving the automobile industry or the administration’s efforts to promote EVs. Biden invited the chief executives of the Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. to the White House for an event in 2021 but did not extend an invitation to Tesla.
That rankled Musk, who cited the administration’s snub on Wednesday. Without “doing anything to provoke the Biden administration, they held an electric vehicle summit at the White House and specifically refused to let Tesla attend,” Musk said. “Biden went on to add insult to injury and publicly said GM was leading the electric car revolution.”
Biden offered rare praise for Musk earlier this year, when the automaker opened part of Tesla’s charging network to other electric, a move the president called a “big deal.”
“Thank you, Tesla is happy to support other EVs via our Supercharger network,” Musk replied in a post on X, then Twitter. He bought the social media company a year ago.
Since Biden has taken office, Musk has sought to court influence with Republicans and is a longtime donor to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He’s also offered praise for many of Biden’s political adversaries and encouraged the public to vote for a GOP Congress in the 2022 midterm elections.
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He has praised Republican candidates seeking the nomination, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who announced his candidacy on a livestream with him.
Musk on Wednesday though said he would not back former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, calling her a “pro-censorship candidate.”
Haley’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday night.
--With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron.