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Musk Uses Crude Tweet to Dismiss Wyden Call for Billionaire Tax

Musk Uses Crude Tweet to Dismiss Wyden Call for Billionaire Tax

Elon Musk used a crude tweet in response to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden’s call for a tax on billionaires, the latest erratic post from Tesla Inc.’s chief executive officer and largest shareholder.

Musk, who has almost 63 million followers on Twitter, on Saturday kicked off a poll on the platform on his proposal to sell 10% of his Tesla shares. He referred to discussions about the ultra-wealthy hoarding unrealized gains to avoid paying taxes.

Most of those who responded to Musk’s poll supported such a sale, though Oregon Democrat Wyden told Musk on Twitter that the vote was an inappropriate way of resolving the issue.

Responding to Wyden’s post, Musk appeared to use crude language to describe Wyden’s profile picture. 

The Tesla boss’s posts have landed him in trouble before. Musk in 2018 tweeted that he’d secured funding to take Tesla private. As part of a settlement with U.S. securities regulators, Musk later agreed to get approval from a Tesla attorney before communicating material information to investors.

More recently, Musk also changed his Twitter handle to ‘Lorde Edge,’ an apparent reference to the edgelord meme, or someone who deliberately posts about controversial or offensive subjects in order to shock others and appear cool, or edgy. 

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.