Trump Adds Elon Musk To Economic Advisory Board


President-elect Donald Trump added Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, to his team of economic advisors to help craft the future administration’s policies. The notable technology giant will help give the technology sector a stronger presence among Trump’s team of business advisers.

In addition to Musk, Trump welcomed the CEOs of Uber and PepsiCo to his administration. In a statement, Trump said America has the most innovative companies in the world.

“America has the most innovative and vibrant companies in the world, and the pioneering CEOs joining this Forum today are at the top of their fields… My Administration is going to work together with the private sector to improve the business climate and make it attractive for firms to create new jobs across the United States from Silicon Valley to the heartland.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk at a meeting in the Trump Organization on December 14, 2016.
[Image by Albin Lohr-Jones/Pool via CNP /MediaPunch/IPX/AP Images]

Elon Musk built the electric vehicle company to address carbon emissions as part of the company’s core mission. Musk expressed in his “Master Plan, Part Deux that the public must “at some point achieve a sustainable energy economy or we will run out of fossil fuels to burn and civilization will collapse.” Several companies represented at the forum are active participants in the clean energy sector.

In the last 10 years, Elon Musk has created nearly 35,000 jobs among his various enterprises. Most notably, many of those jobs are traditional manufacturing ones, according to the New York Times. Elon’s Tesla Gigafactory is a 5.5-million-square-foot battery factory that is currently under construction outside of Reno, Nevada. The factory is expected to employ 6,500 people in manufacturing jobs by the year 2020. Once the factory is complete, 95 percent of the parts contained in Tesla vehicles will be built in the United States.

President-elect Donald Trump at a meeting of technology leaders at Trump Tower on December 14, 2016. [Image by Albin Lohr-Jones/Pool via CNP/MediaPunch/IPX/AP Images]

The technology industry in the U.S. was overwhelmingly opposed to Trump before the election, according to Business Insider. Elon Musk has previously been outspoken on climate change issues in the past. Musk’s protests are in notable contrast to Trump’s thoughts on global warming. Trump’s tweet in 2012 that the concept of global warming was manufactured upset many, including Musk.

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

Musk had a few choice words for Robert E. Murray, the chief executive of Murray Energy Corporation, who called Elon “a fraud” because he accepted $2 billion in government subsidies for Tesla, according to the New York Times. In a fashion similar to Trump, Elon used Twitter to fight back.

“Real fraud going on is denial of climate science. As for ‘subsidies’, Tesla gets pennies on dollar vs coal. How about we both go to zero?”

Many inside the community were hesitant to accept Trump due to major concerns surrounding Donald’s anti-immigration rhetoric. According to Business Insider, Silicon Valley is heavily reliant on immigrant workers. However, following Trump’s shock election victory, the tech-transportation leaders are now open to exploring how they can utilize their skills to work with Trump.

Uber’s Kalanick responded via email with a promising statement.

“I look forward to engaging with our incoming president and this group on issues that affect our riders, drivers and the 450+ cities where we operate.”

Tesla declined to make a public comment, but the company did confirm that Musk accepted Trump’s surprise invitation to join the forum.

The press release arrived from the Trump administration’s website, GreatAgain.gov, and explained that President-elect Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum is comprised of America’s most respected and successful business leaders.

“The Forum, which is composed of some of America’s most highly respected and successful business leaders, will be called upon to meet with the President frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge as the President implements his economic agenda.”

According to the initial announcement, the forum will provide economic advice and will “be called upon to meet with the president frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge as the president implements his plan to bring back jobs and Make America Great Again.”

The top technology executives met at Trump Tower in New York on Wednesday. The attendees included an array of tech giants including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt of Google’s parent company. Other leaders in the technology industry included in the meeting were Alphabet, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Criticism of Donald Trump During 2016 Campaign

Musk’s role in the Trump administration is particularly interesting considering his criticism of Trump during the presidential campaign. Musk had said Trump was “not the right guy” for the White House.

Musk told CNBC in December, “He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.”

During the election, Musk formerly supported Hillary Clinton and was critical of Trump, saying, “I think a bit strongly that [he] is probably not the right guy” to be president.

President Barack Obama with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in 2010. [Image by Alex Brandon/AP Images]

Elon Musk has said his SpaceX company plans to practice soft landings on Mars by launching uncrewed Dragon capsules toward the Red Planet at every launch opportunity for the foreseeable future. Ideally, this is to begin in 2018.

The news of Trump’s pick was announced on Wednesday, alongside PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. Appearing to allude to Trump’s “locker room talk” excuse for the 2005 Access Hollywood audio leak, Nooyi at the time stated his passionate thoughts on the topic, according to Forbes.

“How dare we talk about women that way? Why do we talk that way about a whole group of citizens? I don’t think there’s a place for that kind of language in any part of society. Not in locker rooms, not in football players’ homes, not in any place.”

Kalanick, the CEO of Uber, joked about the Republican president-elect back in 2015 and said he would move to China if Trump won.

“Oh my god, Donald Trump’s gonna win. I’m going to move to China if Donald Trump wins.”

Donald Trump had previously announced several other members of his advisory board to be JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon, Disney chief executive Bob Iger, and chief executive of IBM Ginni Rometty.

[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]

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