Newsom to Musk after HQs move announcement: ‘You bent the knee’
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) took to social media to criticize Elon Musk’s decision to move his aerospace company, SpaceX, and social media company, X, out of the state after Newsom signed a law related to transgender children.
“You bent the knee,” Newsom posted on X, along with a screenshot of a 2022 post from former President Trump criticizing the billionaire.
Earlier Tuesday, Musk said Newsom signing a bill that bans school districts from requiring parents to be notified if their child decides to change their gender identity was “the final straw.”
“Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas,” Musk wrote on X.
The Tesla CEO said he made it clear to Newsom “about a year ago that laws of this nature” would make people leave California. He also added that X would move its headquarters from San Francisco to Austin, Texas.
In his post, which Newsom’s office confirmed to be a response to Musk’s announcement, he included Trump’s post about the tech billionaire where the former president suggested he was the reason for Musk’s successes.
“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it,” Trump said.
Musk recently formally endorsed Trump after Saturday’s assassination attempt and recently donated to the America PAC. As the world’s richest person, Musk said he plans to give the former president around $45 million a month.
The Hill has reached out to X for comment on the governor’s post.