Bernie Sanders rages at Elon Musk’s $1T Tesla pay package: 'Billionaire tax now'

WASHINGTON, DC: Sen Bernie Sanders on Saturday, December 6, fumed at billionaire Elon Musk’s jaw-dropping, shareholder-blessed $1 trillion compensation package at Tesla, calling it a monument to everything he says is wrong with America’s wealth divide.

Sanders declared that Musk’s 10-year payout is "worth more than the combined pay" of every elementary school teacher, cashier, restaurant cook, farmworker, and bartender in America. 

He added, “Insanity. Billionaire tax now.”

The senator’s fury comes as California gears up for the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, a measure that would slap a 5% levy on the net worth of the state’s wealthiest residents.  

Inside Elon Musk’s monster pay package

Tesla’s trillion-dollar incentive plan is the first pay deal of its kind in global corporate history, crafted to keep Musk hungry for performance targets. Tesla’s investors signed off on it in November with over 75% support.

The package breaks down into 12 tranches, each tied to market-cap milestones starting at $2 trillion, with the final monster payout locked behind a near-mythical $8.5 trillion valuation. If Tesla hits the mark, Musk scoops up 35.312 million shares, tacking on roughly 1% to his already hefty 16% stake. 

Sanders has long painted the move as a corporate fever dream. He has previously slammed the deal as an “oligarchy” and “grossly immoral,” arguing that Musk is getting $1 trillion while Trump gives him tax breaks, even as low-income kids are staring down cuts to SNAP benefits.

Rep Dan Goldman noted that Musk has been cruising on a 3.3% effective tax rate by taking tax-free loans against his stock. Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV blasted the CEO's pay that’s now 600 times what workers earn.

Numbers don’t lie

Despite Bernie’s perpetual gripes, Wall Street is still loving Tesla. The stock is up 23.14% over the past year and has shot up 59.82% in the past six months. Tesla’s market cap sits at a hefty $1.51 trillion, and TSLA shares have bounced between $214.25 and $488.54 over the past year, per Benzinga.

Of course, Sanders isn’t exactly popping champagne over the numbers. A few days before his Musk tirade, he posted a chart comparing the wealth of Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg to the bottom 50% of American households.

According to the data Sanders shared from Forbes and Realtime Inequality, the bottom half of Americans hold about $85.4 billion in total wealth. Meanwhile, Musk sits on $478.6 billion, Bezos is at $245.9 billion, and Zuckerberg with $221.1 billion.

“While millions of families struggle to put food on the table Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos & Mark Zuckerberg own more wealth than the bottom HALF of Americans,” Sanders wrote, “That’s what oligarchy is about. That’s what a rigged economy is about.” He asked, “Is it any wonder that people in this country are angry?”

The chart illustrated how each billionaire individually outranks the combined holdings of roughly 165 million Americans.

Last month, the wealth divide ballooned even wider. The 10 richest billionaires added $698 billion in a year, while the bottom half of US households held a measly 1% of the stock market. Nearly 40% of Americans are scraping by in poverty or low-income brackets.

State of the economy

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a more cautious forecast. He pointed the finger at the Federal Reserve, saying the Fed’s policies are pumping recessionary pressures into chunks of the economy.

He said the Trump administration “cut spending and improved the deficit-to-GDP ratio,” and argued inflation is cooling enough for the Fed to step on the brakes and lower interest rates.

Bessent added that sky-high mortgage rates are creating “distributional” problems in the housing market, and suggested cheaper borrowing costs could finally yank the real-estate sector out of recession.