What I've seen over the years is that the Feds & States have made money available for companies that can perform a desired function, & Musk's companies are sometimes chosen from a group of applicants, because they can meet the requirements of the program. I guess those are subsidies, but do we want to change our government grant/award programs so they can exclude one company that's headed by someone we don't like? I don't think that's legal or desirable.
One example is the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program, which was created to promote development of zero-emission vehicles. Tesla applied & received a loan along with Ford, Nissan, & Fisker. Ford’s loan was for $5.937 billion. Nissan’s was $1.448 billion. Tesla’s was $0.465 billion. Fisker’s was $0.529 billion. Ford has never repaid its loan, so that could fairly be called a "subsidy" for Ford. Nissan repaid its loan in 2017. Tesla repaid its loan in 2013, 9 years early. Fisker defaulted and went bankrupt.
Another example is the SpaceX Starlink satellite internet system. The Fed govt (FCC) made funding available to provide internet to rural areas (from the $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunities Fund) & held a "Phase I auction" with a total of $9.2 billion in funding granted. As a result of the auction, funding was awarded to a total of 180 companies, including SpaceX. Once again, Fed funding, authorized by Congress, in a budget signed by POTUS, that any company is free to apply for if they meet the requirements, & the first round of that funding went to 180 different companies but I never see complaints about subsidies to 179 of those companies. There are many more examples like this.
Then there are local tax incentives offered by states & municipalities to encourge businesses to locate in their area, & SpaceX & Tesla have certainly received those. Those could be considered subsidies but that is done by virtually all states for all kinds of industries & all kinds of companies, it is not at all unique to companies that Musk is involved in.
Now, don't get me wrong, I really don't like Musk at all. In fact, I could say I hate him. The guy is a jerk, he's against Biden's infrastructure plan, & he needs to pay a LOT more in taxes. I just see people who seem to think his companies are getting "free" taxpayer dollars handed to them & every time I look into the details I find a funding program (which almost always comes with strings attached, a service must be provided &/or a goal achieved) that other companies also applied for & other companies also received funding. That's exactly how the system works. It's how it's supposed to work. If we don't like that & want to change it we need to complain about the Congress (the House) that writes our Federal budgets & the agencies that structure the grant/award programs because Elon Musk doesn't control any of that.
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