Elon Musk Labels Elizabeth Warren ‘Senator Karen’ in a Bizarre Twitter Clash

Kipp JonesDec 14th, 2021, 6:59 pm
 

Christophe Gateau/Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as “Senator Karen” during a Twitter clash on Tuesday. Musk was named Time’s “Person of the Year” the day before, eliciting an accusation of “freeloading” from Warren.

“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 by taking a couple of shots at the Massachusetts Democrat.

“Stop projecting!” he commented while sharing a Fox News article from 2019 which called Warren a “fraud” whose “lies about being Native American” disqualified her from public office.

In a follow-up tweet, Musk wrote, “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 concluded the exchange by writing, “Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen.” “Karen” has become a derogatory term in the popular vernacular referring to finicky, often upper-middle-class blonde women.

The exchange came a day after the world’s wealthiest person sold $906 million in Tesla stock as part of a recent pledge to sell 10 percent of his holdings in the company, CNBC reported. With the move and other recent sales, Musk will pay a heavy tax bill.

Robert Frank reporting for CNBC noted:

The main reason Musk is selling is to pay the taxes on the exercise of options that expire next summer. As part of a 2012 compensation package, the Tesla CEO was given options on 22.8 million shares that expire next August. The options were valued at more than $28 billion when Musk started selling shares, which means his tax bill would have been as high as $15 billion.

The stock has since fallen more than 20%, along with his tax bill. According to InsiderScore/Verity, Musk has sold 6.5 million shares to cover the taxes on about 15 million options. To exercise all his options — which is likely, since letting them expire leaves billions on the table — Musk will likely exercise another 7.8 million options and sell a corresponding $4 billion or more to pay the taxes.

Musk earlier Tuesday sent the price of Dogecoin into a spike when he announced Tesla would accept the fringe cryptocurrency as payment for merchandise.

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