Elon Musk Just Tweeted Something Really Weird In Response to a Senator Calling for a Billionaire Income Tax (Weird Even for Elon Musk)

Sarah RumpfNov 7th, 2021, 7:49 pm
 
Elon Musk

Win McNamee/Getty Images

“Why does ur pp look like u just came?”

That bizarre question was Elon Musk’s reply to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) tweeting his support for an income tax on billionaires.

On Saturday, Musk had tweeted about a proposal from some Democrats to tax unrealized gains, which would include profits from rising stock prices, even if the owner had not yet sold the stock. Under the current U.S. income tax code, taxable income is assessed on capital gains like stock only after the stock is sold.

Musk tweeted a poll asking his followers to vote whether or not he should sell ten percent of his Tesla stock. The final results were almost 58% in favor of selling, 42% against.

As Musk pointed out, he was not being paid a “cash salary or bonus from anywhere,” presumably including Tesla, SpaceX, and his other ventures. “I only have stock,” he tweeted,” thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”

Wyden retweeted Musk’s poll, writing that “[w]hether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll.”

“It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax,” tweeted Wyden.

Musk replied about half an hour later, asking “Why does ur pp look like u just came?”

We are not even going to attempt to guess what that means. And despite some speculation online that Musk didn’t intend to post that as a reply to Wyden, or even as a public post to anyone, shortly after he tweeted, Musk changed his username to “Lorde Edge.” That’s presumably a reference to “edgelord,” a term for someone who posts deliberately shocking or nihilistic ideas, that they may or may not actually believe, in order to provoke an outraged reaction.

Screenshot of the tweets and Musk’s new username:

elon musk tweet to senator ron wyden

Screenshot via Twitter.

Musk hasn’t offered any other clarification of his tweet. His only other tweet since then has been a reply to a Slashdot article about Wikipedia being criticized for using the wrong photo on a page about a serial killer.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.