Elon Musk slams Elizabeth Warren over criticism of his taxes, calls her 'Senator Karen'

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday took aim at US Senator Elizabeth Warren, referring to her as “Senator Karen” after she claimed that he is “freeloading off everyone else”. “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 with a link to a story about Musk being named Time Magazine’s 2021 person of the year. In response, Musk shared a link to a Fox News opinion article arguing that the Massachusetts Senator lied about having Native American heritage in order to benefit from affirmative action policies. 

“Stop projecting,” Musk said. In a series of tweets, he even called Warren “Senator Karen” and said that she reminded him of an “angry mom”. Further responding to Warren’s accusation that he does not pay taxes, the Tesla CEO claimed that he will pay more taxes than any American in history this year. “Don’t spend it all at once … oh wait you did already,” he added in another tweet. 

Elon Musk's tax payment spat 

Notably, the spat between Musk and Warren comes as several US Senators mull wealth taxes and other measures that could potentially put Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg on the hook for billions of dollars by taxing their unrealised gains. Back in November, Musk even received backlash from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who had demanded that the wealthy pay their “fair share”. “I keep forgetting that you’re still alive,” Musk had said. 

The same month, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden also reiterated his support for a wealth tax for billionaires on Twitter. To this, Musk, in an apparent reference to the senator’s profile photo, responded saying, “Why does your pp look u just came?” It is to mention that Musk is the world’s wealthiest man with a net worth of $252 billion, according to Forbes. And he had routinely hit Democrats with crude insults on social media. 

Musk names TIME's 'Person of the Year'

Meanwhile, Elon Musk became the ‘Person of the Year’ in 2021, taking the title from US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who received it last year. Despite his enormous wealth, Musk is probably the only billionaire who does not own a house as he had pledged to “own no home” -- a promise that he fulfilled by selling his mansion for $30 million on December 2.