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Elon Musk trades insults with Robert Reich over Tesla pay cuts

Robert Reich, the Clinton-era labor secretary who is now at University of California, Berkeley, criticized the Tesla CEO over pay cuts earlier this year.

Robert Reich, former U.S. Labor Secretary, listens to a question during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado, U.S., on Monday, June 30, 2014. The festival gathers some of the foremost thinkers in the world with civically-minded leaders in business, the arts, politics, philanthropy to share ideas and questions and drive thought to action.

Elon Musk didn’t mince words after Robert Reich, the Clinton-era labor secretary who now researches public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, criticized the Tesla CEO over pay cuts earlier this year and called him a “modern-day robber baron.”

“All Tesla workers also get stock, so their compensation increased proportionately,” Musk said on Twitter Wednesday in a response to Reich.

All Tesla workers also get stock, so their compensation increased proportionately. You are a modern day moron.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2020

All Tesla workers also get stock, so their compensation increased proportionately. You are a modern day moron.

Musk’s net worth plunged as much as $16.3 billion Tuesday, the largest single-day decline in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as Tesla shares fell more than 20% before rebounding 6% on Wednesday. Even with this week’s rout, the company’s shares have more than tripled since the April pay cuts.