Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud: California’s Wealth Grab Is “Deeply Un-American.” He’s Considering Getting Out.

1. Where the companies actually went, Texas took more than half of 207 headquarters that left California from 2020 through April 2026. Florida took 8%. Everyone else split the rest.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong didn’t mince words. On the Katie Miller Podcast this week, the crypto billionaire called California’s proposed billionaire wealth tax “deeply un-American,” possibly unconstitutional, and the kind of asset seizure you expect from a third-world country—not the United States. As Trump has said many times, ‘Everything woke turns to shit’ and there is no state as woke as the now Marxist controlled California. A beautiful state now doomed to economic destruction thanks to Democrats and their lunacy.

“I’ve paid tons of taxes on profits and income,” Armstrong said. “But after you’ve already paid your taxes, they want to come take another tax from you and seize your assets. That starts to feel like a third-world country. That is a dangerous, dangerous path to go down.” He added that Coinbase is “considering any and all options” on relocation.

That’s not a threat from some fly-by-night startup. Coinbase still has a major footprint in San Francisco. Armstrong is worth an estimated $8.8 billion. And he is simply saying what a growing list of founders, CEOs, and companies have already done with their feet: California’s one-party Democrat machine is eating the Golden Goose.

2. The tax gap that drives the moving trucks. 13.3% top personal rate in California. Zero in Texas. Zero in Florida. Corporate rate: 8.84% vs. no general CIT in Texas and 5.5% in Florida. That’s not “vibes.” That’s a spreadsheet.

President Trump has spent years warning that high taxes, crushing regulation, and open hostility to success drive jobs and capital out of blue states. California under Gavin Newsom is the exhibit A. Red states—Texas and Florida especially—are the beneficiaries. That’s not “hate.” That’s arithmetic.

The Latest Confiscation Scheme

The union-backed measure, pushed by SEIU-UHW, would slap a one-time 5% tax on Californians worth $1 billion or more as of January 1, 2026. Backers claim it would raise $100 billion to paper over healthcare cuts. Independent analyses say the real haul is closer to $40 billion—and that’s before the rich leave.

Even some Democrats flinched. Newsom and Xavier Becerra opposed it. Far-left figures like Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna cheered. Co-author Emmanuel Saez has already floated making it a permanent low-rate wealth tax because “you can’t surprise billionaires more than once.”

Chamath Palihapitiya put it bluntly on X: half a trillion in net worth was already walking out the door. The “Billionaire Tax” is written so it can later become an Everyone Tax without another vote. Middle-class Californians will get the bill when the rich are gone.

3. The wealth that walked before the vote. Page, Brin, and Zuckerberg alone are in the $230–275 billion range each — and they shifted residency before the January 1, 2026 snapshot. Thiel, Kalanick, Hankey, and Sacks followed. Those three Google/Meta names are about 38% of the targeted billionaire base.

Companies That Voted With Their Feet

This didn’t start with the wealth tax. California has been hemorrhaging headquarters for years because of 13.3% top income tax rates, hostile energy and labor rules, housing costs, crime, and a political culture that treats employers like villains.

Major names that packed up:

• Tesla — Palo Alto to Austin, 2021. Elon Musk said there was a limit to how big you could scale in the Bay Area. Fremont still builds cars; the future is Texas.
• Oracle — Redwood City to Austin in 2020, then toward Nashville. Larry Ellison didn’t wait for a wealth tax.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise — Silicon Valley to Houston, 2020. Cost savings and a better business climate.
• Charles Schwab — San Francisco to North Texas after the TD Ameritrade merger.
• Chevron — San Ramon to Houston, 2024. After 140+ years in California, CEO Mike Wirth said state policies made investment “unappealing.”
• X (Twitter) and SpaceX HQ — San Francisco and Hawthorne to Texas in 2024. Musk called a new California law “the final straw.”
• Palantir — left Silicon Valley’s “monoculture” for Colorado.
• CBRE, McKesson, AECOM — all to Texas.
• Playboy — Florida. CEO called California “anti-business.”
• John Paul Mitchell Systems, Realtor.com, McAfee — Texas.
• CG Oncology — the $7 billion Irvine biotech just moved its headquarters to Dallas. Latest in a line that never stops.

BuildRemote has tracked more than 200 company headquarters leaving California since 2020. Over half went to Texas. Florida took a healthy share. Texas now has more Fortune 500 companies than California. That used to be unthinkable.

Governor Greg Abbott’s office has welcomed hundreds of firms. No state income tax. Energy abundance. Leaders who don’t treat job creators as the enemy. Contrast that with Newsom’s California and the choice writes itself.

4. The union math vs. reality

SEIU sold voters $100 billion if nobody left. Independent estimates after the early flight: closer to $40 billion one-time. Then California loses $3.5–$4.5 billion every year in ongoing income and other taxes from the people who already left. The “one-time” grab eats itself.

The Billionaires Already Gone

The wealth tax didn’t even have to pass. The threat was enough. Reports and filings show a wave of residency changes before the January 1, 2026 snapshot date:

• Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin — Florida (and Nevada for Brin). Hundreds of millions in Miami real estate. Dozens of California LLCs moved or dissolved. Combined wealth in the hundreds of billions. Brin, whose family fled the Soviet Union, compared the tax to the socialism his parents escaped.
• Mark Zuckerberg — $150–170 million Miami compound on Indian Creek (“Billionaire Bunker”).
• Peter Thiel — Miami operations and Florida residency. Palantir co-founder didn’t wait.
• David Sacks — San Francisco to Austin. White House AI/crypto adviser. “Message received.”
• Travis Kalanick — Austin. Posted the move.
• Don Hankey, Jan Koum, Andy Fang (DoorDash co-founder called the tax “stupid”), plus others tied to Lake Tahoe Nevada and Florida.

Analyses from the California Tax Foundation and Hoover-linked researchers estimate the early departures already removed 28–41% of the targeted billionaire wealth base. Page, Brin, and Zuckerberg alone were a huge slice. Ongoing income-tax losses from those who left could run $3.5–4.5 billion per year—wiping out any one-time grab.

IRS data showed California already lost $91.4 billion in net income from 2019–2023, the worst in the nation. The top 1% pay about half of state income taxes. Chase them out and the middle class pays more for less.

5. IRS cash exodus. $91.4 billion in net taxable income left California from 2019–2023 — worst in the country. Just 2022–23: $11.9 billion gone in one year. The top 1% pay about half the state’s income tax. Chase them out and Sacramento still wants the same spending.

Elon Musk, who moved Tesla, SpaceX, X, Neuralink, and The Boring Company activity to Texas years ago, has paid more than $10 billion in taxes in a single year. He still gets lectured by people who produce nothing. California’s answer is to try to seize unrealized paper wealth. That’s not “fairness.” That’s envy dressed up as policy.

Trump Was Right. California Democrats Were Wrong.

President Trump’s agenda—lower taxes, energy dominance, deregulation, and treating success as American rather than suspect—is exactly why Texas and Florida are winning. Companies and families are not fleeing “the weather.” They’re fleeing a governing class that spent a surplus, piled on mandates, tolerated disorder, and now wants to confiscate assets because Washington under Trump won’t fund every Sacramento habit.

Armstrong said if the money were well managed he might feel differently. Instead he sees fraud and waste. Californians living with high gas prices, homeless encampments, empty office towers, and a $46–70 billion budget hole know he’s not wrong.

6. The tax base that left before the ballot. The measure didn’t have to pass. Talking about it was enough. Three founders walked off with more than a third of the wealth the union wanted to seize.

Reid Hoffman, a prominent Democrat donor, called the wealth tax a “horrendous idea” that would hasten the departure of founders. When even the party’s own billionaires start heading for the exits, the experiment has failed.

California still has talent, universities, and weather. What it no longer has is a political class willing to stop punishing the people who built the place. The American way is you keep what you earn after you pay the taxes you already owe. Seizing the rest because a union and a few professors think $1 billion is “too much” is the opposite of that.

7. Honor roll — the household names. Tesla, Oracle, HPE, Schwab, Palantir, Chevron, X, SpaceX HQ, Playboy, and now $7 billion CG Oncology. Most of the trophies went to Texas.

Armstrong is considering joining the exodus. He’s late to the party. Tesla, Oracle, Chevron, Schwab, Page, Brin, Zuckerberg, Thiel, Sacks, Musk, and now another $7 billion biotech already made the rational choice. Texas and Florida said yes. California’s Democrats said “pay up or else.”

Voters in November will decide whether to double down. Capital already voted. It left. Since we know the Marxists in Cali cannot lose thanks to their massive fraud structure, California is now a doomed state along with other Marxist controlled states such as New York and Washington. We put out the facts on how they use fraud to stay in power, and only a real Civil War or Federal action can save political freedom in California. See: The Marxist Iron Curtain Descends: How Democrat-Controlled Blue States Lock in Permanent Power Through Voter Fraud

Whatfinger News will keep tracking every company and founder who chooses freedom over Newsom’s Marxist experiment. America First states are open for business. California, under one-party rule, is open for confiscation.

—- The Whatfinger News Team: Sgt L and Beth

Resources

• Coinbase CEO Considers Joining California Exodus Over “Deeply Un-American” Wealth Tax Proposal
• Coinbase CEO weighs California exit over ‘deeply un-American’ wealth tax
• Mastermind behind California billionaires tax makes absurd claim
• California cash exodus: where the money is going
• California wealth tax sparks billionaire exodus
• California’s Wealth Tax Will Backfire
• California loses wealthy residents to red states amid ongoing tax fight
• California has lost $1T as billionaires flee due to proposed wealth tax
• 8 billionaires who fled California before the “Wealth Tax” hit
• Every Company Leaving California: 2020-2026
• 14 of the Biggest Companies to Leave California
• These companies have shifted their headquarters out of California
• Chevron to Leave California for Texas, as Regulations Mount in Golden State
• A $7 billion California company moved its headquarters to D-FW
• California loses another multi-billion-dollar giant to Texas as corporate exodus grows
• Opinion | It Failed in France. It Would Be a Disaster in California.
• If You Tax Them, They Will Run
• Explaining California’s billionaire tax: The proposals, the backlash and the exodus
• Inside the exodus of California tech billionaires to Florida
• Google Billionaire Sergey Brin Compares California Wealth Tax To Soviet Union Socialism
• Chamath Palihapitiya on California’s Property Seizure Act
• Chamath: The Billionaire Tax is actually an Everyone Tax
• Katie Miller post with Armstrong quotes
• zerohedge: Coinbase CEO Considers Joining California Exodus

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