Anti-billionaire tax ad falsely claims every Californian will have to “report all their assets”

In November, California voters will consider a one-time 5% tax on the assets of a few hundred of the state’s billionaires. The initiative, should it pass, is expected to generate tens of billions of dollars for health care and education programs.

Opponents of the measure have a big problem: taxing billionaires is quite popular.

A new ad being run extensively on Meta platforms navigates around this issue by claiming it is not a “billionaire tax” but an “everyone tax.” This may be an effective message but it is not true.

The ad features a “Trojan pig” being led through the streets of a suburban community by someone who resembles Bernie Sanders. A mother running with a stroller is coaxed by the Sanders lookalike, “Do you like free stuff?” She nods.

As the Sanders lookalike flees the scene, the narrator claims that it was all a ruse. “Buried in the 32-page bill, they snuck in a provision that allows them to turn the tax on you,” the narrator says ominously. “Every Californian will have to report all their assets to the state tax board.”

This is a lie.

The rest of the ad shows the tax’s backers, hidden in the belly of the wooden pig and dressed in suits, ripping away personal property from residents. They steal a small boat and a surfboard, and assault a young boy to seize his bike. The ad concludes as the Sanders lookalike returns and grabs the woman’s stroller. “I thought you were taxing billionaires?” she asks him, crying. “You should have read the fine print,” he replies with a grin.

The fundamental premise of the ad is false. It claims that the initiative’s drafters included a provision that allows them to “turn the tax on you.” The initiative says that the tax can only be amended by the Legislature through a two-thirds vote of both houses. Even then, any changes must be “consistent with and further[] the purposes of the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act,” which is a one-time tax on the assets of billionaires.

It would be easier for the California legislature to simply create a new wealth tax that applies to everyone, starting from scratch — that takes the same two-thirds vote. But that has nothing to do with the initiative.

Nevertheless, the ad claims that “every Californian will have to report all their assets to the state tax board.” Under the initiative, Californians just have to certify that they do not have $1 billion or more in assets by checking a box. This will be an easy calculation for nearly all Californians.

So you read this newsletter, but you haven’t purchased a paid subscription. There are two possibilities:

1. You just can’t afford the price of a subscription ($50/year or $6/month) right now. If that is the case, we get it! That’s exactly why Popular Information does not have a paywall. We want everyone to have access to our work, regardless of their financial resources.

2. You value independent accountability journalism and understand why it is critical to preserving and protecting democracy. You have thought about supporting Popular Information, but you just haven’t gotten around to it. That’s how it goes — life is busy.

But maybe today is the day! It takes a minute, and paid subscribers are the entire reason this newsletter exists. Popular Information has no corporate owners or billionaire backers. We count on readers like you.

The money behind the deception

The ad, which launched last week, is sponsored by Californians Against Wasteful Spending and Higher Taxes, a project of the California Business Roundtable (CBRT). The group has already spent between $125,000 and $150,000 promoting the ad on Meta platforms. In total, the group has spent over $440,000 since April on ads targeting the tax on billionaires.

The top donor to the CBRT Issues PAC is Peter Thiel, the Trump-supporting venture capitalist with a net worth of about $27 billion. Thiel donated $3 million to the CBRT Issues PAC in December 2025. Other top supporters include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt ($1.5 million) and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen ($750,000). Both men are billionaires.

Another $1.9 million came from Kim DeGeorge, who lists her occupation as “not employed.” Kim DeGeorge is the spouse of Marco DeGeorge, the co-founder of the athleisure brand Alo. Marco DeGeorge has a net worth of $3.7 billion.

The CBRT did not respond to a request for comment.

Billionaires fighting a billionaire tax with AI slop

The Meta ad library discloses that CBRT’s anti-billionaire tax ad was “created or edited with AI.” It shows. For example, the Bernie Sanders lookalike begins the ad with gapped or missing teeth. By the end of the ad, he reappears, wearing a different tie, with a perfect teeth.

There is an even more embarrassing error in the tagline that ends the ad where the word “billionaire” is misspelled.

Another ad posted to the group’s Instagram account yesterday contains the same misspelling.