Gavin Newsom befriends Elon Musk during a visit to Tesla’s engineering headquarters

Tesla has also been targeted by regulators in the Newsom administration.

Last February, California sued Tesla over allegations of discrimination against black employees and creating a “racially segregated workplace” at its Fremont plant.

Tesla called the suit “mistaken” in a blog post published before news of the suit was made public.

Newsom’s joint performance with Musk is noteworthy as leading California Democrats have lashed out at the Tesla mogul for moving the electric car giant’s headquarters from the Bay Area to Austin, Texas.

In October, San Francisco Mayor London Breed called Musk “a man who got a bunch of tax breaks in California and decided to take that money and run.”

Breed, who has urged business leaders to return their employees to an office in her city hit hard by remote work, made the comment in response to a question about Musk’s frequent criticism of Democratic policies in party-run states and cities.

Lawmakers in California were outraged when Musk announced in 2021 that Austin would be the new headquarters of Tesla, a company that has received more than $3.2 billion in direct and indirect grants from Sacramento since 2009.

Announcing his decision to move to Texas, Musk said, “California used to be a land of opportunity. Now it has become, and is becoming more and more, a land of over-regulation, over-litigation, over-taxation and contempt.”

Musk was annoyed by the COVID-19 lockdown measures, which forced the temporary closure of his Tesla plant in Fremont.

Last April, Musk angered local officials in San Francisco when he suggested turning the headquarters of Twitter, a microblogging site he bought for $44 billion, into a homeless shelter because “nobody shows up anyway.”

The city of San Francisco recently launched a Twitter investigation after several employees reported that some offices had been converted into makeshift bedrooms with mattresses.

Twitter employees spent the night at the company’s headquarters to comply with Musk’s new “hardcore culture” executive order.

In the fall, Musk announced his support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) for president. DeSantis has not yet announced his candidacy.

Musk, who has backed the likes of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the past, has been critical of the Democratic Party, saying it has become “a party of division and hate.”

On social media, Musk often argued with progressive lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Just days after taking over Twitter, Musk angered Democrats and their supporters by tweeting and then deleting a post linked to an unsubstantiated rumor of an attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

While Musk insists he does not consider himself a conservative, he has publicly called on his 119 million Twitter followers to vote Republican in the 2022 midterms and has drawn the ire of liberal users by reinstating right-wing accounts, including that of former President Trump.

“I remind you that I was a strong supporter of the Obama and Biden presidencies and (reluctantly) voted for Biden, not for Trump,” Musk said.

“I prefer someone sensible and centrist to the presidency in 2024. I hoped it would be the same with the Biden administration, but so far I have been disappointed.”