THE BUZZ: TOEING THE LINE — One of California’s biggest employers is becoming an even bigger headache for California Democrats. A terse exchange between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Gov. Gavin Newsom over a deepfake political ad highlights a marked change in how state politicians are approaching the bombastic executive, who has long clashed with California leaders but in recent months has invited more scrutiny over his increasingly partisan bent. Musk employs tens of thousands of Californians at SpaceX and X — a leverage point he often uses in political arguments. While the world’s richest man has never shied away from saying exactly how he feels about California's taxes or Covid-19 precautions, Musk has veered away from business matters as he embraces hardline Republican talking points and, most recently, former President Donald Trump. It creates a particularly awkward situation for Newsom, who has held up the electric car manufacturer — and even Musk himself — as evidence of California’s technological and climate leadership. But the governor has also taken up the mantle of campaigning for national Democrats, who in recent weeks have run ads attacking Musk and other Trump-backing billionaires. Newsom on Sunday sharply criticized an AI-altered campaign video that Musk had retweeted that had manipulated the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris. The governor vowed to make such ads illegal — a threat Musk dismissed in typical schoolboy fashion. “I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America,” he replied on X. It’s unusual to see a state leader directly targeting such an important employer, but between his public support of Trump and broadsides against California Democrats, Musk appears to have transcended business executive status. Earlier this month, Musk vowed to move SpaceX and X to Texas, saying he was outraged over Newsom’s signing of a bill to protect the privacy of LGBTQ youth. He also took to X to criticize the bill, going so far as to call one of the authors a “pedophile apologist.” Despite that announcement, SpaceX on Sunday said it would move its splashdowns to the waters off the California coast. Last year, after Musk had moved Tesla's corporate headquarters from California to Texas, he shifted the company's global engineering headquarters back to Palo Alto. Lenny Mendonca, Newsom’s former chief economic and business adviser, said the governor is justified in going after Musk, and that it doesn’t do any harm to his businesses. "It's like he's a surrogate for Trump,” he said of Musk. “And you just can't let that stuff go unchallenged.” GOOD MORNING. Happy Tuesday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte. WHERE’S GAVIN? In Kern County for a Borel Fire site visit.
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