The US government can and should be directly financing mining and making lithium batteries.

It is. My employer is making bank on it right now.

Great but this had nothing to do with selling cars with massive, unsustainable subsidies as the price of lithium is just one part of the cost to manufacture a car. Furthermore, their goal isn't to get more people into EVs. It's to increase power and influence by selling their product at prices so low, nobody can compete against them. Once the competition is gone, a monopoly forms, subsidies end, prices skyrocket, and ideas and innovation stagnate.

Your approach is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Who's going to develop a more energy dense, climate friendly solution if the entire market is controlled by a single entity?

I have no idea what you're referring to with "the stock swap."

The US government does provide subsidies for EVs, but it is different in that it doesn't solely apply to US companies or companies directly controlled by the US government and they aren't being used for cars sold in other nation's markets. Any player in the industry can receive them provided they meet the criteria which is why American, South Korean, Japanese, and various EU-based companies are currently receiving them.