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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., drew intense criticism on Monday after she claimed on X that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos should pay more in taxes in response to him sponsoring the Met Gala, with conservatives questioning the senator’s record and accusing her of misrepresenting facts.
“The answer to everything, up to and apparently including bankrupting an airline at the cost of something like 15,000 jobs and the entire concept of budget airfare, is ‘Jeff Bezos has a lot of money though,’” venture capitalist and media founder Mike Solana wrote in response to Warren’s post.
Solana was referring to the recent demise of Spirit Airlines. Conservative commentators claim Spirit could have been saved if Warren hadn’t pushed to block JetBlue’s acquisition of the budget carrier on anti-trust grounds in 2024.
“If Jeff Bezos can drop $10 million to sponsor the Met Gala, he can afford to pay his fair share in taxes,” Warren said on Monday, sparking the glut of pushback from social media users.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 16, 2023. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Following news that Bezos had cut an eight-figure check to fund the Met Gala, liberals in the entertainment industry such as Mark Ruffalo and Taraji P. Henson joined Warren in criticizing Amazon and Bezos for their allegedly unethical business practices. Protesters appeared outside the gala on Monday holding signs criticizing Bezos. One demonstrator was detained for trying to break into the event.
Warren’s message backfired online, as commenters pointed to the demise of Spirit Airlines and took issue with her tax policies across the years.
“Jeff Bezos employs over 1.5 million people at Amazon,” X user Gina Milan wrote. “You’re responsible for 17,000 workers losing their jobs and for blocking the merger that ultimately killed Spirit Airlines.”
Spirit put downward pressure on prices at other airlines and its folding could lead to an increase in overall travel prices, industry analysts told USA Today. Estimated job losses stemming from Spirit’s shuttering include approximately 15,000 direct employees and an additional 2,000 indirect employees.
“This myth just won’t die,” Reason Magazine reporter Billy Binion posted, responding to Warren’s assertion that Bezos isn’t paying enough in taxes. “In 2024 alone, it’s estimated Jeff Bezos paid almost $3 billion in taxes. Painting rich people as tax avoiders plays great on social media, but it’s not reality. The U.S. has the most progressive tax system in the developed world.”
Forbes estimates that Bezos paid $2.7 billion in taxes in 2024 after he sold $13.6 billion worth of Amazon stock. He reduced his tax burden that year by donating $2.5 billion in Amazon shares to charity over the three prior years. Bezos paid nearly $1 billion in taxes between 2014 and 2018, according to a ProPublica analysis of tax documents.
To minimize tax burdens, billionaires like Bezos often take out loans secured against their massive stock holdings to acquire spending money, according to securities filings reviewed by ProPublica. Since the IRS doesn’t consider loans income, this setup gives the wealthy access to cash without having to pay income taxes.
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Billionaire Jeff Bezos attends the DealBook Summit. Critics on social media have accused Bezos of allowing the Washington Post to suffer amid hundreds of staff layoffs. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The New York Times)
Some on social media pushed Warren for specifics on how she plans to make Bezos pay his “fair share.”
“What’s his fair share?” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked Warren. “What tax rate?”
Warren has proposed a wealth tax, charging households with net worths above $1 billion an annual tax worth 6% of their total wealth. Under Warren’s proposal, households with net worths between $50 million and $1 billion would be subject to a similar 2% tax.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks to a staff member before the Senate Banking Committee hearing on oversight of credit reporting agencies on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 27, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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Much of the growth in wealth experienced by Bezos and other billionaires comes through the unrealized gains of their assets, which Warren’s tax would target.
Writer Mike Coté pointed out that Bezos is “so rich that he can simply leave the jurisdiction or get citizenship elsewhere” if Warren’s tax plans were signed into law.
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“Liz Warren does not want progressive taxation,” he continued. “She wants confiscatory taxation. It’s fundamentally un-American. And it doesn’t work.”
Warren’s office did not respond to a request for comment sent by Fox News Digital Tuesday morning.
