Elon Musk says Biden's desire to tax the ultra-rich would 'upset a lot of donors'

• Elon Musk said President Joe Biden's plan to tax the rich won't sit well with "a lot of donors."
• Musk said a wealth tax could become a burden to lower-to-middle-income earners.

Elon Musk took a dig at wealthy Democratic donors and President Joe Biden's plans to tax the rich in a tweet on Saturday.

The President tweeted on Saturday that "It's about time the super-wealthy start paying their fair share." A little over an hour later, the tech magnate that stands among the richest men in the world replied that a wealth tax could become a burden to lower-to-middle-income earners.

"I agree that we should make elaborate tax-avoidance schemes illegal, but acting upon that would upset a lot of donors, so we will see words, but no action," Musk said on Twitter in an apparent diss to donors in the Democratic Party.

In the 2020 election, billionaire donors spent over $2.3 billion across the two parties. Biden in particular received money from about 230 billionaires or partners of billionaires, according to a report from Forbes.

"Those who will actually be forced to carry the burden of excess government spending are lower to middle income wage earners, as they cannot escape payroll tax," Musk said in his tweet on Saturday.

Biden's tweet came after his campaign rally in Philadelphia in which the president called for union workers to support his reelection, as well as additional taxes on billionaires and major companies.

"It's time they pay the minimum tax," Biden said at the rally, according to a transcript of the event. " I don't mind them being billionaires. Just pay your fair share, man."

Earlier this year, Biden proposed a minimum tax on billionaires of about 25%.

On Saturday, the Twitter owner joked that 80-year-old Biden was not in control of his own social media account.

"Please give him the password, so he can do his own tweets," Musk tweeted in a separate response to Biden's post. "Please, I'm begging you!"

Musk has spoken out against a tax on the uber-wealthy in the past. In 2021, he slammed a tax plan that would have left him with an annual bill of about $10 billion at the time.

"Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you," he wrote on Twitter in October 2021.

Though, he said later that year that he supported an inheritance tax on high-net-worth people.

In 2021, Musk said he paid about $11 billion in federal taxes. Tesla paid $0 in federal taxes in 2021, according to CNN. The electric-car maker is set to rake in billions of dollars from Biden Administration economic incentives that were signed into law last year.

Despite saying he voted for Biden, the Tesla CEO has been critical of the president since he took office, calling him a "damp sock puppet" last year and repeatedly dissing Biden for seemingly failing to praise Tesla.

The billionaire hasn't been one to hold back on Twitter. Though, an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the Tesla's CEO's "funding secured" tweet requires some of Musk's tweets to pass the inspection of a lawyer.

Musk did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication.