U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday rejected Tesla CEO Elon Musk's comment about his "tremendous bad feeling" about the economy, jokingly saying he wished Musk "good luck" on his "trip to the moon."
Earlier in the day, Reuters reported that Musk wrote in an email to executives, saying he had a "tremendous bad feeling" about the economy and needed to cut jobs at electric car maker Tesla by about 10 percent.
When Reuters asked Biden about Musk's remarks, he refused.
"While Elon Musk is talking about it, Ford is increasing its investments dramatically," Biden said.
"Ford is increasing investments and producing new electric cars, and there are 6,000 new employees on a collective contract in the Midwest."
Speaking of Musk, he continued: "Very lucky on his journey to the moon."
For his part, Musk responded on Twitter: "Thank you, Mr. President." He posted a link indicating that the U.S. Aviation and Space Administration (NASA) awarded SpaceX, which is owned by Musk, a contract in April 2021 to build a spaceship carrying astronauts to the moon.