Elon Musk dismisses Bernie Sanders's 5% wealth tax, says 99% of his trillion-dollar fortune is in stock — not cash

Elon Musk's elevation to trillionaire status this summer has been a PR nightmare for the already divisive figure, who has come to represent the elite, who many resent for accruing riches and wielding influence as the Americans face increasing socioeconomic insecurity .

To ease the worsening burden of the cost of living — and the large national debt — multiple levels of government have contemplated more taxation of the nation's highest earners in recent months.

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From Virginia's millionaire levy and Rhode Island's "Fair Share" duty on high-value assets to federal acts targeting billionaires, such as those pushed by lawmakers like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren , "Tax the rich" has become a common call to action.

Sanders, for one, has singled out Musk specifically to drive home the need for the 5% charge the senator has suggested imposing on the ultra-wealthy.

While noting in a recent X post that the top 1% of wealthiest Americans now own an eye-popping $54 trillion in wealth — 468 times more than the bottom 50% of residents — he bemoaned that "One man, Elon Musk, owns more than the bottom half combined."

"This is what I mean when I talk about oligarchy," he wrote.

But, Musk was quick to clap back and argue that Sanders was missing the fact that most billionaires are relatively cash poor, with the vast majority of their funds tied up in ever-fluctuating assets like stocks. For Musk, stake in the companies he's built and helped succeed comprises more than a whopping 99% of his fortune .

As he retorted on X this week , "I have stock in SpaceX and Tesla, not some big pile of cash."

Musk has previously quantified his cash holdings as less than 0.1% of his total net worth , also pointing out that his employees receive stock options and thus benefit from increased valuations, too, as do retail investors such as pension funds that have a stake.

Billionaires like Mark Cuban and Jimmy Donaldson, who goes by Mr. Beast on YouTube, have echoed the same point, with the latter telling the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that he has "negative money right now" and is in fact "borrowing money, that's how little money I have."