Tesla, Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk agreed with a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that accused the U.S. government of unfairly targeting the billionaire entrepreneur with multiple regulatory investigations.
What Happened: The Journal piece, penned by its editorial board, suggests that the Joe Biden administration might be engaging in regulatory harassment due to Musk’s controversial social media activity and criticism of the president.
These investigations include the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York looking into potential personal benefits provided to Musk by Tesla and a Department of Justice probe examining whether Musk used Tesla resources for a secret glass house project (which he has denied).
The editorial also questions the wisdom of allocating prosecutorial resources to these investigations, drawing parallels with the Japanese government’s prosecution of former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. Additionally, it mentions the Department of Justice’s complaint against SpaceX for alleged discrimination against asylum claimants and the Federal Trade Commission’s scrutiny of Musk-led Twitter.
See Also: Best Electric Vehicle Stocks
Musk, Fanbase React: Responding to the editorial piece, Musk said, “Sure seems that way.”
One of his followers on X, formerly Twitter, said, “Gerontocracy prefers to revive practically expired auto it seems,” apparently referring to the 80-year-old Biden and his backing of legacy automakers.
Crypto influencer David Gokhshtein said Biden doesn’t even acknowledge Tesla when talking about electric vehicles, although this was not true in all cases.
Another attributed the government clampdown to Musk’s stance on Ukraine. “The Biden administration is certainly interested in Elon Musk, due to his position on Ukraine, so he will be subject to national security reviews,” the user said.
Another attributed the government clampdown to Musk’s stance on Ukraine. “The Biden administration is certainly interested in Elon Musk, due to his position on Ukraine, so he will be subject to national security reviews,” the user said.
Tesla stock rose 0.49% to $245.32 in premarket trading on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
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