Ariana Grande's mother slams Elon Musk for wanting stay-at-home restrictions lifted: 'You're a disgrace'
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was slammed by social media users on Wednesday, April 29, after he called the ongoing stay-at-home restrictions in the United States to curb coronavirus spread "fascist."
Musk's statement came as the electric carmaker posted its third quarterly profit in a row in the midst of the lockdown measures, surprising Wall Street. The firm reportedly registered a profit of $1.24 a share.
Musk, during an earnings conference call on Wednesday, while referring to the government-ordered shutdown of his factory in Fremont, California, said that he did not know when they would resume production. The Tesla CEO, in the call, also slammed the shutdown, demanding people's "goddamn freedom!"
"I think the people are going to be very angry about this and are very angry," Musk said. "It’s like somebody should be, if somebody wants to stay in the house that’s great, they should be allowed to stay in the house and they should not be compelled to leave. To say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic, this is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom!"
"So the expansion of the shelter in place or as frankly I would call it, forcibly imprisoning people in their homes, against all their constitutional rights, is 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, excuse me," he continued.
The billionaire added: "It’s an outrage. It will cause loss, great, great harm, but not just to Tesla, but any company. And while Tesla will weather the storm there are many small companies that will not.'
Musk, earlier in the day, had taken to his Twitter account to tweet: "FREE AMERICA NOW."
His remarks about lifting the lockdown against the advise of health experts have drawn widespread criticism, with many calling him irresponsible, including singer Ariana Grande's mother Joan Grande.
"How incredibly irresponsible of you.... and you think you are a person of science and technology... you're a disgrace.... and now I have to get rid of my TESLAs... oh well...oh... and you clearly are not very smart! #BoycottTesla," Grande tweeted on Wednesday.
While another Twitter user said: "Do you want to make others sick? How much do you like Covid19? Morality plays a role. You can go out & infect others, since people are able to spread COVID19 before they know they have it. You can go out & catch COVID19 & spread it to others, including people you live with."
Another wrote: "Wealthy people care more about their fortunes than the health of people they've never met. Not surprising at all, unfortunately." A fourth added: "Rich people don't make money if the peons don't work. PS: you can be a brilliant polymath and still quite stupid in some areas. A curse of having smarts is that you start to think you're an expert in everything."
Ever since the initial outbreak of the novel coronavirus across the world, Musk has expressed skepticism about the virus, downplaying the severity of the disease which has claimed 228,757 as of Thursday morning, according to the Johns Hopkins University data.