California Governor Gavin Newsom has fired back at Elon Musk in a four-word tweet after the billionaire announced he will move SpaceX and X’s headquarters to Texas due to Newsom’s new gender identity laws.
“You bent the knee,” Newsom wrote Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, along with a screenshot of a 2022 tweet from Donald Trump criticizing Musk.
Earlier on Tuesday, the 52-year-old billionaire announced the big move, saying Newsom’s signing of a law that bans California school districts from notifying parents if their child is transgender was “the last straw.”
The new law reversed decisions by more conservative school districts that required teachers to inform parents if a student changed his or her name or pronouns, or requested to use facilities or participate in programs that did not match their official gender.
“Because of this law and the many others that came before it, which attacked families and businesses alike, SpaceX will be moving its headquarters from Hawthorne, California to Starbase, Texas,” he wrote on X.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has responded to tech billionaire Elon Musk after he said he would move the headquarters of X and SpaceX to Texas after Newsom passed new gender laws
Elon Musk, 52, announced Tuesday that he is moving SpaceX and X out of California because he disagrees with Newsom’s latest gender laws
Tweet from Gavin Newsom in response to Musk’s announcement that X and SpaceX will move headquarters from California to Texas
“I made it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and businesses to leave California to protect their children.”
Musk later added that the social media site would also move its headquarters from San Francisco to Austin, saying he was “tired of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building.”
Newsom’s post also included Trump’s tweet about the tech billionaire, in which the former president suggested he was the reason for Musk’s success.
“When Elon Musk came to the White House and asked me for help with all of his many subsidized projects, whether it was electric cars that don’t last long enough, self-driving cars that crash, or spaceships that don’t go anywhere. Without those subsidies, he would be worthless. And when he told me he was a big Trump fan and a Republican, I could have said, ‘Get down on your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it,” Trump wrote in 2022.
Musk also indicated on Tuesday that “many will follow,” noting that “Silicon Valley has changed.”
Newsom’s post included Trump’s tweet about the tech billionaire, in which the former president suggested he was the reason for Musk’s success. Musk recently supported former US President Donald Trump after his assassination attempt at a rally on Saturday
The billionaire has already moved Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin after Alameda County officials refused to let him reopen the factory due to coronavirus restrictions, despite Newsom announcing that manufacturers would be allowed to restart operations.
About a year later, he made good on his promise, praising Texas’ lack of an income tax and the region’s abundance of housing, but he did announce that he would keep Tesla’s “engineering headquarters” in California.
Musk even moved to the Lone Star State in 2020 after living in California for 20 years. He was also in the process of moving SpaceX to Texas after speaking out against California’s liberal policies.
The tech billionaire’s plans to move X and SpaceX’s headquarters from California to Texas have raised concerns about hundreds, if not thousands, of people losing their jobs. ABC7 News reported.
Musk opposes the use of preferred pronouns, often joking about it on social media and dismissing it as part of a “woke” agenda that is dangerous to society.
Musk went to X to say that SpaceX will now move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California to Starbase, Texas
Musk said he had previously spoken to California’s governor about his woke policy, warning it could force companies to leave the state
X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is now moving from San Francisco to Austin
Musk is the father of an estranged transgender daughter, whom he blames on her private school education in California, which has led her to become politically far-left and turn against him.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, however, has been on the other side and is often a champion of these woke ideals, even though he too has moved with his family from one of the state’s largest cities to an exclusive region.
This comes after the billionaire CEO officially endorsed Trump as his candidate for president following Saturday’s shooting, calling the former Republican president “tough.”
Musk, the world’s richest person, posted his endorsement in a video showing Trump with blood on his face raising his fist in the air after multiple shouting attacks at his presidential rally.
The reports confirm Musk’s shift to the right and give Trump a key boost in his bid to return to the White House in the Nov. 5 election.
“I fully support President Trump and hope for his speedy recovery,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X.