A war of words has erupted online between California Governor Gavin Newsom and two of the Silicon Valley elites, tech billionaires Elon Musk and David Sacks. The friction began after Newsom called for a sweeping, nationwide tax on the ultra-wealthy – similar to the one he proposed in his state. The proposal quickly triggered a wave of mockery and pushback. In a detailed Substack post, Newsom argued that fighting the ultra-wealthy state-by-state is a losing battle.Newsom called for the passage of a nationwide billionaire tax, which he described as “a true minimum tax on billionaires – a modern Buffett Rule,” which is a system where “the delivery driver can end up paying a higher rate than the founder of the company whose packages he delivers.”“The fight to make the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes is not one we should be fighting state by state. You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do,” Newsom wrote in a Substack post. Newsom’s agenda also includes closing “lifestyle loan” loopholes used by the rich and hiking corporate tax rates back to pre-2017 levels.
Elon Musk’s cartoon meme
Some of the wealthy from the tech world quickly fired back. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, mocked the California governor by posting a side-by-side image on X comparing Newsom to Butt-Head, the famous 90s cartoon character from Beavis and Butt-Head. Newsom quickly fired back, quote-replying to Musk’s meme with a sharp warning.“Don’t worry, we’ll be taxing trillionaires even more. Time to cough up after all that California corporate welfare!” Newsom said in a reply to Musk, who became the world’s first trillionaire and whose net worth hovers around $997 billion (at the time of writing).
David Sacks joins the ‘attack’
The criticism quickly widened as other prominent financial figures stepped into the digital ring. David Sacks, tech investor and former White House AI and crypto czar, blasted the governor for failing to kill the state’s controversial Billionaire Tax Act.“Today was the day that Gavin Newsom was supposed to save the tech industry by cutting a deal to kill the Billionaire Tax Act. Instead, he came out as DSA-adjacent [Democratic Socialists of America]… See y’all in Texas!,” Sacks posted on X.Meanwhile, Anthony Scaramucci, Wall Street financier and former White House Communications Director, warned that pushing aggressive tax hikes on the wealthy could cost the Democratic party the next election cycle. “I think the Democrats want the GOP to win the presidency in 2028,” Scaramucci wrote, suggesting that economic inequality should be fixed through “clever and way more market-based ways.”