Gavin Newsom Response to Elon Musk Relocating X HQ to Texas

Elon Musk recently announced that he is moving the headquarters of two major companies that he runs — SpaceX and social media platform X — from California to Texas.

The firebrand entrepreneur said he was doing so because of the state’s new gender identity laws, which have been pushed by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

On Tuesday, Newsom shot back, posting on Musk’s social media site a simple message:

“You bent the knee.”

In the post, he also posted a screenshot of a tweet that GOP nominee Donald Trump posted in 2022 that highly criticized Musk.

In that 2022 post, Trump took credit for the success Musk has enjoyed, saying:

“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.”

Musk quickly responded, though, writing:

“You never get off your knees.”

This little dispute started recently when Musk said that “the final straw” in deciding to relocate the headquarters of two of his big companies to Texas was when Newsom signed a new law that bans all public school districts in California from notifying parents if their child comes out as transgender to a school official.

As Musk posted on X:

“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.”

He also said that the headquarters for X would be moving to the Texas state capital of Austin from where it is now in San Francisco, California. Tesla, the electric vehicle company that Musk heads, already has its headquarters in Austin.

In commenting on the move for X, Musk said he’s “had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building.”

This isn’t the first time that this issue has come up between Musk and Newsom. In fact, Musk said previously:

“I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.”

On Tuesday, Musk said his companies wouldn’t be the only ones leaving California, saying that “many will follow,” since “Silicon Valley has shifted.”

Tesla originally had its headquarters in Palo Alto, California, but moved them to Austin after officials in Alameda County wouldn’t let the company re-open its plant when COVID-19 restrictions were in place.

This happened even after Newsom announced that manufacturing companies would be allowed to re-start their operations.

About a year after that incident, Musk moved to Austin, citing the abundance of affordable housing options available in the region and the fact that Texas doesn’t have a state income tax.