The billionaire CEO made the comments on a Tesla earnings call late Tuesday night. He called the shelters in the San Francisco Bay area and throughout the US’fascist’.

Six Bay Area counties extended the shelter-in-place orders through May 31. Only some minor relaxing restrictions. The rant began after Musk said,’we are a bit worried about not being able to resume production in the Bay area’.

‘the expansion of shelter-in-place, or as we call it, is breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong,’ Musk said.

‘this is fascist. Give people back their damn freedom,’ says Musk.’if somebody wants to stay in the house that’s great,’ he adds.

Tesla’s primary factory is located in Fremont, California. Musk kept the factory open for five days after the initial shelter-in-place order. The company’s Nevada Gigafactory remains open.

Musk said on the call that Tesla would be fine after the covid-19 crisis, but that small companies would not.’everything people have worked for all their lives is being destroyed in real time,’ he said of the state orders to close non-essential businesses.

Musk has been an outspoken critic of some of the safety measures instituted in the US due to the coronavirus pandemic. He has questioned basic coronavirus science and made incorrect projections about the severity of the virus. There are about 25,000 new cases confirmed daily, and that is almost certainly an undercount.

The Verge’s Russell Brandom chronicled earlier today. Musk now has a troubled history with his public communications around covid-19.

He promoted a widely discredited paper on the benefits of chloroquine. It was debunked so quickly that Twitter and Google Docs refused to host it.