How Elon Musk Broke With Biden and the Democrats

Elon Musk’s embrace of Donald Trump can be traced in part to a snub by President Biden. 

In early 2021, the new Biden administration began making plans to implement its campaign promises to boost electric vehicles.

At the time, Musk’s Tesla produced about two-thirds of the EVs on U.S. roads. But Tesla is also the only major U.S. car manufacturer that doesn’t have unionized factory workers, and some of its labor practices were under scrutiny by federal regulators. 

Tesla officials reached out to the White House multiple times after the inauguration, hoping to connect Biden and Musk, according to people familiar with the matter. The Tesla boss, who said in a television interview that he voted for Biden—and has said he voted exclusively for Democrats until a few years ago—repeatedly got the cold shoulder.