Biden Swipes at Elon Musk, Forgets He Has a Contract with NASA: ‘Lots of Luck on His Trip to the Moon’

President Joe Biden took a swipe at Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Friday, wishing him “lots of luck on his trip to the moon.”

Biden made the remark in response to a reporter’s question at a press conference about Musk’s comment earlier in the week that he had a “super bad feeling about the economy.”

“What do you say to Elon Musk?” the reporter asked, noting that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon “has said similar things.”

“Well, let me tell you, while Elon Musk is talking about that, Ford is increasing their investment overwhelmingly,” Biden replied “While Elon Musk is talking about that, Ford is increasing investment their investment overwhelmingly. “I think Ford is increasing investment in building new electric vehicles, 6,000 new employees, union employees I might add, in the Midwest. … So, you know, lots of luck on his trip to the moon.”

Critics were quick to point out that Biden presumably intended to reference NASA’s scheduled trip to the moon. The space agency awarded a $2.9 billion contract last year to Musk’s second company, SpaceX, to take astronauts there in 2025 as part of its Artemis program.

Musk announced in a Thursday email to Tesla employees the company would be “reducing salaried headcount by 10 percent” as it had become “overstaffed,” though he said hourly staff would increase. His comments about the economy were included in the email.

Ford, which survived the 2008-09 economic crisis thanks to $5.9 billion in aid from the federal government, announced the same day that it would invest $2.3 billion to increase electric vehicle production.

While Biden was quick to dispute Musk’s assessment of the economy, he refrained from addressing the comments by Dimon, a prominent Democratic donor.

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“You know, I said there’s storm clouds but I’m going to change it … it’s a hurricane,” Dimon said Wednesday at a conference in New York. “That hurricane is right out there, down the road, coming our way. We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy or Andrew or something like that. You better brace yourself.”

American employers added 390,000 jobs in May, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday, while the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6 percent, slightly higher than the 50-year low reported before shutdowns related to the Covid-19 pandemic obliterated the economy in early 2020. The U-6 unemployment figure — which includes those who have given up looking for full-time work — stood at 7.6 percent. That number was 7 percent in February 2020.

But rising employment has not made goods more affordable. Central banks including the Federal Reserve have been unable to stem the rising tide of inflation this year, despite aggressively tightening monetary policies. Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged Tuesday the situation was bleak even from her perspective, saying in an interview with CNN, “I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take.”

Other analysts have expressed a similarly alarming view of the economy. Universa Investments founder Mark Spitznagel said in a Thursday interview he believed the world was facing “the greatest credit bubble of human history.”

“If this credit bubble ever pops, it’s going to be the most catastrophic market failure that anyone has ever read about,” Spitznagel added. “But let’s hope that doesn’t happen. We’ve gotten ourselves into a tough spot.”

Watch Biden above via Fox News.