'Frenemy' Biden: "Musk Worth Considering Relations with Other Countries"

President Joe Biden of the United States [Photo by EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] U.S. President Joe Biden said that "it seems worthwhile to look into relations with other countries" regarding Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter.

According to CNBC and other outlets, on the 9th (local time), a day after the U.S. midterm elections, President Biden made this remark during a White House press conference when asked whether Musk's acquisition of Twitter would be investigated for posing a threat to U.S. national security.

President Biden stated, "It seems worthwhile to look into Elon Musk's cooperation or technical relations with other countries," adding, "This does not imply that he is engaging in any inappropriate behavior, nor am I suggesting an investigation; I am only saying it seems worth looking into."

However, the White House denied last month's reports that the U.S. was discussing initiating a national security review of some of Musk's businesses, including Twitter.

President Biden and CEO Musk have long been at odds, to the point of being called 'arch-enemies.' While Biden frequently mentions investments in electric vehicles and clean energy, he has avoided mentioning Tesla. Musk has expressed dissatisfaction several times and, earlier this year, made pessimistic forecasts about the U.S. economy, which irritated President Biden.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla [Photo by Reuters]

On the 7th, a day before the midterm elections, Musk tweeted to independent voters not affiliated with any specific party, saying, "Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both the Democratic and Republican parties," and "Therefore, considering the president is a Democrat, I recommend independent-leaning voters vote Republican for Congress."

The possibility of a national security investigation into Musk has persisted since last month. During his acquisition of the social networking service (SNS) Twitter, financiers included Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and the Qatar sovereign wealth fund. At the end of last month, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy argued that this aspect should be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Additionally, Musk's SpaceX provides Starlink satellite services to Ukraine, which has sparked controversy and raised the possibility of an investigation.

On the 3rd of last month, Musk proposed officially recognizing Crimea, which Russia forcibly annexed in 2014, as Russian territory and said he intended to stop providing free Starlink services to Ukraine. Subsequently, Ian Bremmer, chairman of the U.S. think tank Eurasia Group, claimed on Twitter that Musk had direct conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin, and Ukraine. However, Musk denied Bremmer's claims.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.