Over its history, Tesla has become the most recognized maker of electric vehicles. This has given Elon Musk the pocket change to buy Twitter and grow his other ventures, such as SpaceX and The Boring Company.

All that Tesla growth, though, has come at a price — for taxpayers. While Tesla is a household word among EVs, its growth came with a lot of help from government at both the federal and state levels. As The Wall Street Journal points out: “In 2009 the Obama Administration helped Tesla get out of the gate with a $465 million loan. California also exempted Tesla’s equipment purchases from sales tax to induce it to build a factory in the state. Tesla boasted a near monopoly on EVs for many years, and it has benefited from the $7,500 per vehicle federal tax credit and California’s rebates that ranged from $2,000 to $7,500.”

Due to a budget hole, California’s EV rebate program came to an end last year, but Governor Gavin Newsom is vowing to restore it if President Trump does away with the federal program as he’s threatened. However, Newsom’s renewal will come with a major exception: Tesla buyers won’t be allowed to partake in the tax savings. Why not? As a Newsom spokesperson said, their exclusion will “promote competition” because Tesla holds a market share of over 50%.

But Scott Pinsker of PJ Media reveals the real truth, asking, “Why does Newsom want to reinstate the EV tax credit, but deliberately exclude Tesla? Simple: BMW and Hyundai aren’t jeopardizing Newsom’s power base. By contrast, Musk and Tesla are — which is why they must be singled out and punished.” Punished just like California drivers of gas-powered vehicles, who will be coughing up an extra $1,000 a year or more for gasoline that conforms with more stringent emission standards as well as supply requirements that require refiners to maintain ready stocks of gasoline.

On the other hand, Rivian, which manufactures an EV truck and SUV, is gaining largesse from both the federal government and two states. Illinois is pledging $827 million in incentives for Rivian to expand production at its plant there, but more importantly, the federal government is reportedly giving a $6 billion loan to Rivian to build a new plant in Georgia with the capacity to make 400,000 SUVs and crossovers. This goes along with $1.5 billion in state incentives announced back in 2021 when the plant was supposed to go online in 2024 with the promise of 7,500 jobs. At $6 billion, the per-job cost is “insane,” according to former GOP presidential candidate and DOGE co-director Vivek Ramaswamy, who said the loan — to a company that reportedly is losing almost $40,000 on each vehicle it sells — “smells more like a political shot across the bow” at Musk and Tesla.

At this point, it’s worth remembering that Elon Musk was once the darling of the Left — until they went off the deep end. And that was before he bought X and began palling around with Donald Trump. Now Elon’s dead to them, and Trump is enjoying his company.

Thanks to his new role in the aforementioned Department of Government Efficiency, though, Musk may be able to get the last laugh on Gavin Newsom and Joe Biden’s excessive federal subsidies. And that would benefit everyone else — especially those of us who neither have the desire for an EV nor want to help pay for someone else’s.