Elon Musk calls coronavirus lockdowns ‘fascist’ in Tesla earnings call

Musk lets it rip

Tesla CEO Elon Musk called shelter-in-place guidelines “fascist" during a shockingly profane Tesla quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, saying the measures were infringing on people’s rights.

“To say that they cannot leave their house and they’ll be arrested if they do? This is fascist," Musk said. “This is not democratic, this is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom."

“I think the people are going to be very angry about this and are very angry," Musk said during his off-the-cuff remarks.

At an earlier point in the call, Musk said the expansion of the shelter-in-place rules was “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights."

He said the guidelines were “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," he added, before apologizing for the profanity.

“It’s an outrage," he said. “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."