Tesla CEO Elon Musk calls stay-at-home orders ‘fascist’ (Video)

Yesterday, we wrote about Elon Musk after Tesla CEO pushed for reopening the country and put an end to lockdowns, demands we “Free America.” Now, Musk is doubling down calling stay-at-home orders “fascist.”

“I think that people are going to be very angry about this and are very angry. Is this — somebody should be — if somebody wants to stay in the house, that’s great. They should be allowed to stay in their house and they should not be compelled to leave, But to say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom people. Give people back their God damned freedom,” Musk said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg disagreed over stay-at-home orders during their earnings calls on Wednesday.

Watch the video below.

Below is the transcript of what Musk said.

ELON MUSK: Yeah, I think we are a bit worried about not being able to resume production in the Bay Area and that should be identified as a serious risk. That we only have two car factories right now, one in Shanghai and one in the Bay area and the Bay are produces the vast majority of our cars, all of S and X and most of the 3 and all of the Y. So, the extension of the shelter in place or frankly I would call it forcibly imprisoning in their homes against all their constitutional rights, that’s my opinion, and breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why people came to America or built this country. What the fuck? Excuse me. The outrage, just an outrage.

So but it will cause great harm not just to Tesla but to many companies. And while Tesla will weather the storm, there are many small companies that will not.

And all of people’s — everything people have worked for their whole life is going get — is being destroyed in real time and we’re going to have many suppliers and our having many suppliers that are having super hard times, especially the small ones. And it’s just causing a lot of strife to a lot of people.

ADAM JONAS, MORGAN STANLEY: Elon, on that point, you mentioned people that gave their lives to build the country, my faults for you on this. There have been a lot of comparisons drawn to the state of the US economy to the early 1930s when Roosevelt began a series of new deals and infrastructure projects or post-World War II when Eisenhower launched the US Highway Act and when JFK launched the Apollo program which you could say was influenced by the cold war clearly and you benefited from and our space program benefited from, what would be your message to US lawmakers on this call as we in addition to your opinions on shelter in place but thinking longer-term, your message to US lawmakers coming out of the crisis, specifically around EV infrastructure and a chance to work with taxpayers to support sustainable transport renewable energy? I’m wondering if you see this as a chance to make the crisis and all the loss and lives lost not be in vain. Thanks.

ELON MUSK: I think it’s high time we invested in infrastructure in this country. We have a lot of crumbling highways and bridges, and frankly when I visit China, I see their infrastructure as being much better than ours. It’s great. Europe has better infrastructure. It’s really quite sad that US infrastructure, especially roads and highways is where it is today. And our airports, a lot of cases are an embarrassment. So, and it’s not just a question of money it’s a question of will. Sometimes we spend a lot of money on these things, but what do we gain for it? So and yeah, we really need to be thinking about what is the transportation of the future and what the transportation of the past. If this was 1920, do you want to be investing in steam engines or in (inaudible) motion engines? Obviously that’s not steam engines. So this is a time to think about the future.

And also to ask is it right to infringe upon people’s rights as what is happening right now.

I think that people are going to be very angry about this and are very angry. Is this — somebody should be — if somebody wants to stay in the house, that’s great. They should be allowed to stay in their house and they should not be compelled to leave, But to say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom people. Give people back their God damned freedom.