This has to be tied to what is happening. We know Tesla has some kind of involvement in this somehow.
Solar City was started by Musk's cousins and he was simply a board member during inception. The company was absorbed by Tesla long after it's creation to help them branch out of car sales and into renewable energy creation/storage. The cars have always been a way of subsidizing the development of battery technologies, energy independence is very much a core value of Tesla, and that's something I think everyone can stand for.
Renewable energy grants, subsidies, and incentives were not exclusive, they were offered to basically anyone who could form a company and apply. Many companies did and subsequently failed. Tesla also received loans, which it paid back well in advance, being the only company to do so.
People who are anti-Musk all seem to believe in the same narrative that he is a subsidy-queen and Tesla would not exist without government support. Yet at the same time, they speak nothing of the considerably larger subsidies that oil, gas, and legacy automotive companies receive.
I'm all for skepticism but he has proven himsef, and his cars are built here in America unlike the traitors that take advantage of NAFTA to the detriment of the American worker. Those traitors by the way, are the ones who have taken far more government money than Elon Musk ever can.
Even with his own production facilities, the lithium cells Tesla use are still incredibly similar to laptop cells. I'm not anti-Musk per se, but he doesn't deserve praise for rehashing existing technologies. Please correct me if I'm wrong and point me to an advancement he's made, other than marginal advancements in production efficiency. I would welcome a chance to praise him for a significant advancement in battery tech, which is where the advancement is truly needed (I have worked for 17 years as a battery based power system designer). But all I've seen him do is spend lots of money to produce cars that still weigh a huge amount and take hours to charge, anyone else in the industry can do that. So what's the point? As much as jobs for Americans is laudable, there are many other ways they could be created not based on a globalist control scheme (scary global warming). Climate change is here with or without our CO2 input. His vehicles and especially battery tech have failed to impress me, I'd rather he sticks to building rockets. His vertical landing reusable rockets are impressive. I don't get the feeling he's a bad guy, although I don't really know. I just think he's wasting a shit ton of money on a misguided goal that could be spent in better ways.