Elon Musk Bids GoodBye To California, Says He’s Moved To Texas For These Reasons

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he has left California and moved to Texas after earlier being critical of the “fascist” lockdown measures being implemented at the Golden State.

“For myself, yes, I have moved to Texas,” the world’s second richest man told Wall Street Journal editor Matt Murray at the CEO Council Summit.

“We’ve got the Starship development here in South Texas where I am right now. We’re hopefully going to do a launch later today. And then we’ve got big factory developments just outside of Austin for Giga Texas as well,” he added.

Musk made his comment of moving out of his home state for 25 years after earlier publicly criticizing stay-at-home orders in California.

“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,” Musk said in April as the state started its lockdowns, as reported by The Verge.

“The expansion of shelter-in-place, or as we call it, forcibly imprisoning people in their homes, against all their constitutional rights, is, in my opinion, breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong, and not why people came to America and built this country. What the f***!”

He added: “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. But 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.”

“Bad business climate” in California

The following month, Musk hinted he was fed-up with how liberals run California and urged his more than 40 million Twitter followers to “take the red pill” — a common internet term for those shifting their political views to the right.

Musk has since hinted about the Texas move when he tweeted that Tesla would “now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately” after California officials refused to let the company reopen its Fremont factory due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

Following this, Democrat San Diego California State Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez earlier tweeted: “F*ck Elon Musk.”

During the CEO Council Summit, the Tesla founder also slammed California’s business climate and compared the Golden State to sports teams who used to win for so long that its players started taking things for granted and being complacent “…then they don’t win the championship anymore.”

“Tesla is the last car company still manufacturing cars in California. SpaceX is the last aerospace company still doing significant manufacturing in California,”Musk said.

“There used to be over a dozen car plants in California. And California used to be the center of aerospace manufacturing. My companies are the last two left.”

He also lamented how regulations in the Golden State “just get out of the way” of innovators — resulting in monopolies and duopolies.

Texas welcomes Musk

Meanwhile, as the Tesla and SpaceX founder announced his move,  Senator Ted Cruz, who represents Texas, tweeted a welcome to Musk.

“Texas loves jobs & we’re very glad to have you as a Texan,” the Republican senator said.

Steeve Strange

Steeve is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Scoop.