Sen. Elizabeth Warren accused entrepreneur Elon Musk of being a freeloader, prompting a furious and snarky response from Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
The Massachusetts Democrat fired the first shots Monday by retweeting the Time article and calling Mr. Musk a tax dodger.
“Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else,” Ms. Warren wrote.
Mr. Musk wasn’t having any of it.
The electric-car and space-travel tycoon began Tuesday by accusing Ms. Warren of “projecting” and retweeting an article about her considerably exaggerated claims of American Indian ancestry.
“You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Please don’t call the manager on me Senator Karen,” he continued, including a prayer emoji and referring to Ms. Warren by a nickname for a busybody, know-it-all woman.
He wasn’t done.
A few hours later, he noted that Ms. Warren’s claim that he is a tax freeloader is also factually false.
“If you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year,” he wrote before concluding with a common conservative point about Congress.
“Don’t spend it all at once,” he wrote about his tax contributions. “Oh wait you did already.”
There was no reply Tuesday evening from Ms. Warren.