Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, directed a series of insults to Bernie Sanders on Twitter after the US senator repeated his call for billionaires to pay more in taxes.
Musk even made a point of selling more Tesla Inc. shares, which would require him to pay capital gains tax.
Ms. Sanders, 80, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, tweeted on Saturday that “we have to ask the ultra-wealthy to pay our fair share.” their”. He did not mention Musk by name.
Musk, whose $286 billion fortune has made him a target of wealth tax advocates, replied: “I forgot you were still alive.”
In a follow-up tweet early Sunday, Tesla and SpaceX executives asked: “Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word…”
I always forget that you are still alive
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
November 14, 2021
Musk still tweeted 11 hours later, saying that Sanders was “a reviewer, not a producer”.
Musk sold off nearly $7 billion of Tesla stock last week, which helped push the automaker’s stock down 15%. Shares were down 2.6% as of 9:36 a.m. Monday in New York.
The sharing recommendations began after Musk polled Twitter users on whether he should sell. But some trades were made according to a trading plan that he arranged in advance in September, before he consulted him on social media.
Musk also did not mention in his tweets that he has millions of stock options that must be exercised before they expire in August 2022. In September, he said he has the ability to exercise. “a large volume” of those options until this close. year.
Late last year, Musk confirmed that he had moved from California to Texas, a state that doesn’t tax income. On Saturday, Musk tweeted that he’s been living in a cottage in South Texas for the past two years. “Feels more cozy living in a tiny house,” he wrote.
Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and has long advocated for the wealthy to pay more in taxes. In March, he tweeted that the fortunes Musk and Amazon.com Inc co-founder Jeff Bezos had amassed were “immoral.”
Musk also recently criticized US Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who has pushed for a wealth tax on billionaires.
