After rage-tweeting about social distancing measures on ?? ???Wednesday morning, Elon Musk called stay-at-home orders "fascist" and exclaimed, "What the fuck?" on an earnings call with investors in the afternoon.
Tesla's first quarter earnings call started with prepared marks from CEO Elon Musk.
But as the call progressed, Musk's true feelings about shelter-in-place requirements, like those in the Bay Area that are keeping his Fremont, California car plant shut down until at least June, surfaced. He could barely contain himself as he used profanity to describe his thoughts on shelter-in-place efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19.
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"I should say we are a bit worried about not being able to resume production in the Bay Area," he said.
"So the extension of the shelter in place or, frankly, I would call it, forcibly imprisoning people in their homes, against all their constitutional rights ... and breaking people's freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong, and is not why people came to America or built this country. What the fuck?"
He managed to compose himself before he went off again, calling the orders "fascist" and undemocratic before ending with, "Give people back their goddamn freedom."
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Even though Tesla made a profit this quarter, it was supposed to be a stronger start to a solid 2020. The pandemic is ruining any likelihood of that. As Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at automotive analysis firm Edmunds, emailed over, "COVID-19 essentially robbed what would’ve been a home run for Elon Musk, so it’s unsurprising that he’s been leaning into the ‘Free America’ rhetoric on Twitter."
And now he's leaning into it in real-time on publicly available phone calls with investors, analysts, and the media.
Topics Electric Vehicles Tesla Elon Musk