Tesla's CEO Elon Musk who previously said that Trump was "not the right guy" for the Oval Office will become a strategic advisor to the president-elect along with Uber's Kalanick.
Earlier in December, Trump finally named the 16 members of his Strategic and Policy Forum that includes the industry leaders advising the president-elect on the business and economical matters. Up until yesterday, the only CEO representing the American tech sector was IBM's (NYSE: IBM) Ginni Rometty, who yesterday issued a public statement promising to create 25,000 new jobs in the United States that experts saw as a pledge to Trump's office.
However, a few hours before yesterday's tech summit in the New York's Trump Tower, the president-elect said he invited Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk as well as Uber's chief Travis Kalanick to be the next two members of his strategic advisory board. The choice of candidates was surprising to most, to say the least, as both Musk and Kalanick have repeatedly criticized Trump's political campaign. Musk said that he thought that Donald Trump was "not the right guy" for the Oval Office whereas Kalanick joked about moving out of the U.S., as reported by the Washington Post:
“Oh my god, Donald Trump’s gonna win. I’m going to move to China if Donald Trump wins,” Travis Kalanick said back in October 2015.
Nevertheless, both candidates agreed to join Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum and Kalanick said he was looking forward to working with the incoming president. Tesla declined to comment. The job of Musk and Kalanick, as part of the advisory board, would be to work on administrative policies and regularly meet with Trump himself to discuss their views on the government projects and, as always, find ways to create new jobs in their sectors for the United States.
“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,” said President-elect Trump, as appears in the statement at his website GreatAgain.
Apart from Musk and Kalanick, such top leaders as PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) Chairman Indra Nooyi as well as GM's (NYSE: GM) Mary Barra, JPMorgan's (NYSE: JPM) Jamie Dimon and Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Bob Iger accepted their invitations to join Trump's forum.
And, considering that most of Silicon Valley companies backed Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, Musk's and Kalanick's willingness to join Trump's advisory board is a good sign for the entire tech sector as we already know that Trump needs as a little as a tweet to move stocks.