Elon Musk is a man whose whole life seems, in some way, dedicated to the pleasures of trolling, as befits a man whose chief diversion is Twitter. When it comes to David Einhorn, the SEC and juries, the Tesla founder is all about messing around. But even after a week in which he pledged to sell every residence he owns—pending an entail forbidding the next owner from changing anything about Gene Wilder’s own house—and named his child X Æ A-12, he wants to make it very clear that he’s not at all kidding about California endangering as many residents’ lives as it takes to allow him to once again make fewer cars than he’s promised, in another tweet that once again makes one wonder about the efficacy of what program Tesla has in place to make sure that an adult reviews Musk’s market-moving outbursts per SEC order.
Mr. Musk tweeted that he would move Tesla’s headquarters to Texas or Nevada after being told that the factory in Fremont, Calif. wouldn’t be allowed to reopen last Friday. “Frankly, this is the final straw,” he fumed. “I’m not messing around.”
“Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will depend on how Tesla is treated in the future.”
The Tesla CEO, through Twitter, on Saturday morning said: “Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The unelected & ignorant “Interim Health Officer” of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!”
The company filed its suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking an injunction against the county’s order and arguing, in part, that the local government had overstepped its authority by overruling the California governor’s approval for businesses to reopen.
Tesla Files Lawsuit in Bid to Reopen Fremont Factory [WSJ]
Elon Musk Lashes Out at Officials Keeping Tesla Plant Closed Over Virus [NYT]
Elon Musk Is ‘Not Messing Around’ [DealBook]