Elon Musk calls Elizabeth Warren ‘Senator Karen’ in bitter exchange over taxes

‘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 says

Elon Musk has called Elizabeth Warren “Senator Karen” and said that she reminded him of an “angry Mom” in a bitter exchange triggered by the Democrat’s demand that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO pay more taxes.

On Monday, after Mr Musk was chosen as Time magazine’s person of the year, the Massachusetts senator wrote on Twitter: “Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else.”

She also shared a mock Time cover with Mr Musk and the words “Tax Me” with cover lines that read: Mr Musk paid “$0 tax in 2018” and that “he got $240 billion richer during the pandemic”.

The world’s wealthiest man, who recently surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of around $300bn (£227bn) is anti-tax. Ms Warren and other lawmakers believe he doesn’t pay his fair share.

On Tuesday, Mr Musk told her to “stop projecting” and shared an opinion piece calling her a “fraud” for claiming that she had Native American heritage in order to “benefit from affirmative action or other preferential programmes created for underrepresented groups”.

"You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason," Mr Musk wrote.

"Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen," he added in another Twitter jibe.

The term “Karen” has been widely used as a slang word to refer to white women perceived as entitled or demanding.

Mr Musk, who is known for several controversial comments and frequent Twitter spats with people, wrote again after a few hours: “And if you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realise I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year.”

“Don’t spend it all at once … oh wait you did already,” he wrote in the last tweet addressed to the Senator.

The exchange comes amid the discussion of a wealth tax that Democrats plan to impose on billionaires such as Mr Musk and Jeff Bezos.

The Tesla founder has time and again attacked Democrats for such measures. He also challenged the idea of ending world hunger with $6bn and said he is ready to sell off his stocks if someone can give him a plan on how this money would be used.