Elon Musk Photographer: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images Musk, who spoke Tuesday at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California, said the administration is overly influenced by organized labor. He said he’d prefer to see a more centrist president.
“He didn’t mention Tesla once and praised GM and Ford for leading the EV Russian revolution,” Musk quipped on stage with journalist Kara Swisher. “It’s not the friendliest administration. It seems to be controlled by the unions.”
The White House didn’t respond to request for comment. “I would not want to be president at all,” Musk added.
Tesla, which is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, employs about 10,000 workers at its plant in nearby Fremont. The United Auto Workers has made various attempts to organize workers there.
Earlier in the conversation, when discussing Space Exploration Technologies Corp., where he is also CEO, Musk said working with the U.S. government was an important part of doing business.
He once again joked that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should be known as the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission.” He previously tweeted the reference in April 2018 after reaching an agreement with the agency that barred him from serving as chairman of Tesla as punishment for a series of problematic social media posts.
The world’s richest man also pushed back against a report by ProPublica in June that said he paid little income tax relative to his outsize wealth, estimated at $209.6 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk said he doesn’t draw a salary from either SpaceX or Tesla, and pays an effective tax rate of 53% on stock options he exercises. He added that he expects that tax rate to rise next year.
“My taxes are very high,” he said. “They are like over half, and a huge amount will be paid in the next three months because of expiring options.”