Presidential Candidate Bashes Tesla Over Subsidies, Ties With Xi Jinping's China: Elon Musk Has This To Say

Biotech entrepreneur and U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy lambasted Tesla Inc.'s (NASDAQ:TSLA) "Master Plan 3" in a tweet on Sunday. Ramaswamy's tweet garnered the attention of the automaker's CEO, Elon Musk.

What Happened: Ramaswamy shared a post from Tesla Asia that contained a photo of the signing ceremony of Tesla's Megafactory in Shanghai, China.

Ramaswamy criticized Tesla and Musk for "doubling down" with China's Communist Party and the country's president Xi Jinping.

He also lambasted subsidies aimed at the proliferation of electric vehicles, calling them "one of many small pawns in the game" for the "climate cult."

Musk retorted that  Ramaswamy was "wrong on many levels." He said that the company is increasing production rapidly in Texas, California and Nevada.

"Our competitors require subsidies, not us. That said, if competitors get subsidies, Tesla should get them too," Musk said.

The Tesla CEO added, "Tesla's competitive position would improve if all subsidies ended."

Why It Matters: While Musk did address the subsidy part of Ramaswamy's tweet, he didn't comment on the Chinese leadership or the country in his response.

Notably, Ramaswamy's criticism came on Easter weekend when Musk was rumored to visit China.

Last year, Musk had sparred with noted historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat over subsidies. He said that Ben-Ghiat was "perpetuating propaganda concocted by the oil & gas industry."

Before that, In 2020, Musk had said on Twitter that Tesla received the "least" subsidies of any automaker in the U.S.

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