"If I cared about subsidies," Elon Musk said in 2015, "I would have entered the oil and gas industry."

Yet the history of Musk's business empire tells another story.

Musk's companies have long been fueled by taxpayer money, whether in the form of massive government contracts, low-interest loans, tax breaks and other support that helped make Musk one of the world's richest people.

Over the past two decades, firms run by Musk have received tens of billions of dollars in federal backing.

One tally , by The Washington Post , found that at least $38 billion in government support has been funneled to Musk's companies, an estimate that likely undercounts the breadth of support since some defense and intelligence contracts are not publicly available.

In turn, the U.S. government has bec

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