Elon Musk targets Bernie Sanders over tax: ?I keep forgetting you?re still alive?

Elon Musk waded into yet another Twitter controversy on Sunday, the Tesla owner and world’s richest person responding to a tweet about taxes from Senator Bernie Sanders by writing: “I keep forgetting that you’re still alive.”

Sanders, 80, wrote: “We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. Period.”

Musk, 50, is also the owner of SpaceX and has a personal worth estimated at around $271bn, making him by some counts the richest person ever.

Sanders did not immediately respond. Melissa Byrne, a progressive activist and former Sanders staffer, tweeted: “Folks, quit buying Tesla. Don’t reward abusive men.”

This week, Musk sold nearly $7bn of shares in Tesla, more than $5bn after asking Twitter followers to vote on whether he should do so, and more than $1bn on Friday.

Jason Benowitz, senior portfolio manager at Roosevelt Investment Group in New York, told Reuters: “We expect the share sales will continue, as Musk holds millions of options worth billions of dollars that would otherwise expire worthless, and he has also prearranged share sales.”

Tesla’s share price fell after Musk’s Twitter followers said he should sell stock. But the shares remain hugely valuable.