Elon Musk hit back at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) after suggesting he is “freeloading off everyone else.”
Warren took to Twitter to react to Time naming Musk Person of the Year.
“Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else,” Warren tweeted.
Musk responded, “Stop projecting!”
Stop projecting! https://t.co/Kibp6aS9vL
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021
He added, “You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason.”
Musk went on, “Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen.”
Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen 🙏
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021
He also suggested if Warren opened her eyes “for two seconds,” she would “realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year.”
Musk continued, “Don’t spend it all at once … oh wait you did already.”
Don’t spend it all at once … oh wait you did already
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021
According to CNN, “Musk is just months out from a deadline to exercise the stock options he received years ago. If he doesn’t use them, he loses them. And if he does exercise his shares, he’s going to face a monster tax bill between nearly $11 billion to as much as $16 billion at current share prices.”
His federal tax bill to date for 2021 amounts to $7.6 billion.
A report published by ProPublica in June found that billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett have managed to avoid paying federal income taxes at one time or another, as IJR previously reported.
Musk avoided paying income tax in 2018.
According to the report, “The IRS records show that the wealthiest can — perfectly legally — pay income taxes that are only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, their fortunes grow each year.”
As Time National Political Correspondent Molly Ball notes, it is “really hard to escape Elon Musk’s dominance over so many things in American life right now.”
The publication explained, “For 2021 was the year of Elon Unbound.”
It added, “In April, SpaceX won NASA’s exclusive contract to put U.S. astronauts on the moon for the first Time since 1972. In May, Musk hosted Saturday Night Live. In October, car-rental giant Hertz announced it planned to add 100,000 Teslas to its fleet.”