By Eric Peters
July 8, 2025
Elon is upset with Trump and has decided to form his own party, the America Party. Trump responded the other day by suggesting it might be time to look into Elon's rent-seeking over the years.
Just desserts couldn't be sweeter.
Musk has made billions off the government. More finely, off of government spending and now he has the audacity to complain about government spending, a la the Big Beautiful Bill just passed by Congress. Perhaps because it does not contain enough spending that will benefit him. He certainly never complained about such spending before.
How much has the government spent on Space X? Whether one thinks it is worth spending money on rockets and such is not the issue. The issue is whether it is proper to spend other people's money on it. More finely, whether it is morally justifiable to rob millions of Americans of their money in order to "fund" (note the bland terminology government uses that an honest mugger would never have the audacity to use) some project that puts billions into the pockets of a privately owned, for-profit company such as Space X. Musk is a billionaire and - supposedly a whiz at business. Well then, why doesn't Musk use his own money to launch his rockets? Instead of using the government to force millions of Americans to "fund" his operations, why doesn't he persuade investors to back them? If they are worth backing, why wouldn't they?
Legitimate businesses do not need to rent-seek because they don't have to.
This can be expressed another way. Illegitimate businesses rent-seek because they have to. Because if they didn't rent-seek, they'd be out of business.
Tesla comes to mind. Elon built his business using government to extract rent from legitimate businesses, most especially the established car companies. They were effectively forced to buy what are styled "carbon credits" from Tesla because it was either do that or manufacture "zero emissions" electric vehicles that they knew they could not sell except at a loss. It cost them less to buy "credits" from Tesla, which the government counted in their favor, insofar as complying with the regulations that effectively required them to either manufacture "zero emissions" EVs themselves or get (that is, buy) "credit" for handing money over to Tesla for manufacturing them.
A lot of spending there, all of it forced by the government for the benefit of Tesla (and so, Elon Musk).
Tesla built its business in the same way that the larvae of a certain wasp feeds on the paralyzed but still living body of the "donor" insect that the parent wasp stung before laying its egg on the victim. The legitimate vehicle manufacturers - whose legitimacy derives from the fact that they sold what people wanted at a price that earned an honest profit - were thus forced to finance Tesla and the EV force-feeding generally.
Further feeding came in the form of tax kickbacks that greatly advantaged Tesla for many years because for many years, Tesla was the only major manufacturer of EVs. The government dangled tax kickbacks up to $7,500 to induce people to buy EVs and - for many years - that essentially meant Tesla EVs. Now, there is nothing evil about returning a portion of the money stolen from what are styled "taxpayers" (once again, note the deliberately bland terminology; as if paying taxes were like paying rent; i.e., as if it were a voluntary transaction). That is not the issue. The issue is that only some taxpayers got some of their money back - but only if they bought an EV, which for many years meant they bought a Tesla.
The government didn't just favor certain taxpayers; it favored Tesla very specifically. Put another way, it disfavored all of the other (legitimate) car companies by putting its fat, greasy thumb on the scales, in favor of Tesla.
Now Musk says he no longer wants the government to subsidize EVs - because that would benefit his rivals. There is now sort-of "competition" in the market because every major car company has been effectively forced to manufacture their own EVs and the continuation of the federal subsidies would benefit them, by making their EVs more cost-competitive with Tesla's EVs. The wasp, in other words, does not want other wasps feeding off the host.
Musk complaining about government spending is almost funny - except that we're the ones who've been paying for it. Now - shyster that he is - Musk wants to pretend he stands in opposition to government spending! That Trump is irresponsible for spending so much. Which of course he is. But at least Trump's spending isn't on himself. Musk's audacity - or is it dissonance - is his pretended opposition to government spending, except insofar as it has been spent on himself, via his various rent-seeking operations.
Maybe he's just mad at Trump because he didn't get what he thought he paid for. Maybe Trump used Elon, just as Elon used the government when it was under the control of green reds such as Joe Biden and Barry Obama (under which the Green Grift really got going).
And now Elon's upset because he's feeling used. If so, welcome to the club you founded, old boy.