President Donald Trump has defended Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk amid backlash over the billionaire's political activities.

When a reporter asked Trump during a press briefing on Wednesday about a recent popularity poll about the increasingly unfavorable public opinion surrounding Musk, calling him the "most unpopular public figure in the country."

"I don't know if the poll's accurate. I think he's a good person and I think he had a really bad moment," Trump said before adding that he "believed" Musk is a "really good person."

The news comes as Tesla could face increased scrutiny from the government after Trump's pick for the NHTSA administrator, Jonathan Morisson, called for tougher oversight on autonomous driving in the U.S.

This could be a blow to Musk's Robotaxi ambitions, as the billionaire plans to serve half the population of the U.S. with Tesla Robotaxis. 

However, the company has been criticized by experts like Gerber Kawasaki's co-founder Ross Gerber, who called the Robotaxi "a wild exaggeration" and called Tesla's FSD "an oxymoron."

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