<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">It wasn’t so long ago that Elon Musk couldn’t even get an invitation to the White House.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The year was 2021, and President Joe Biden was <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/climate/biden-tailpipe-emissions-electric-vehicles.html" title="">announcing</a> tighter pollution rules and promoting his electric vehicle policies.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Behind him on the lawn were gleaming examples — a Ford F-150 Lightning, a Chevrolet Bolt EV, a Jeep Wrangler — as well as the chief executives of the companies that made them. But the nation’s biggest electric vehicle producer was nowhere to be seen.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited,” Musk tweeted before the event.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Biden White House explained the snub by noting that the automakers that had been invited were the nation’s three largest employers of the United Automobile Workers, a powerful union, and it suggested that the administration would find other ways to partner with Tesla. (Union animus toward electric vehicles <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/16/business/electric-vehicles-uaw-gm-ford-stellantis.html" title="">later became a problem for Biden</a>.) But today, the moment is seen as a turning point in a <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/06/business/dealbook/biden-musk-apple.html" title="">feud</a> between Musk and Biden that some <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-kara-swisher.html" title="">Democrats say they have come to regret deeply</a>.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“They left Elon out,” said Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who is working to get his party to embrace electric vehicles, “and now he hates ’em.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">It was hard not to think about that episode yesterday when Musk and Trump lined up Teslas, including Cybertrucks, on the White House driveway and <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/us/politics/trump-buy-tesla-elon-musk.html" title="">proceeded to rattle off their benefits</a> like denizens of a suburban showroom.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“I love the product,” Trump said.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“Try it,” Musk said. “You’ll like it!”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Musk now has the White House attention and promotion that he wanted several years ago — and with it, a pile of <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/politics/elon-musk-companies-conflicts.html" title="">potential benefits</a> for some of his companies — but it’s come at a price. He donated some $300 million largely through his own super PAC to help Trump get elected. My colleagues Theodore Schleifer and Maggie Haberman reported yesterday that he’s <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-donation.html" title="">signaled a willingness to put another $100 million</a> into groups controlled by Trump’s political operation.</p><div class="css-1336jj"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171quhb"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1b5b8u1" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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