First minister John Swinney urged MSPs to vote through his Budget or risk playing "right into the hands of Elon Musk".
The leader of the SNP also called for there to be no "outside interference" in Scottish politics after Musk made several recent high-profile comments on UK politics and was involved with rows with various political figures.
Reacting to Swinney's comments, Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay branded them "preposterous" and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused the SNP of populism.
The BBC reports MSPs are poised to vote on the government's tax and spending plans next month, with the minority SNP administration requiring help from at least one other party's MSPs to ensure the plans are voted through.
Now, during a speech, Swinney warned MSPs they risk "feeding the forces of anti-politics and of populism" if they do not back his Budget.
Answering questions from the media, he said his speech was about addressing "relevant" issues in people's lives, and to provide the solutions.
He said: "Those solutions are not always straightforward. And they are certainly not as glib as populists like Elon Musk would suggest they are.
"What we've got to do is work hard, bring people together in a sense of unified purpose to make sure that we improve the lives of people in Scotland as a consequence of our actions."
Swinney added: "If the Budget doesn't pass, then I think we're playing right into the hands of Elon Musk and other populists.
"I think we're playing right into their hands because we're demonstrating, or the political system is demonstrating, that it can't address people's day-to-day concerns."
But Anas Sarwar hit back, claiming the SNP had been "the definition of populism" during 17 years of government.
He claimed the first minister already knows he has enough votes for his Budget, but would not disclose which parties he believed would support him.