Elon Musk Joins Trump Side, Changing Sides?

Elon Musk is often considered the poster boy for overly optimistic progressive goals, which is exemplified by his forward-looking attitude towards technology, renewable energy, and transportation. However, it would seem that the billionaire most often thought of as the real-life Tony Stark decided to become an advisor to Donald Trump. He joins Travis Kalanick, the CEO at Uber and Indra Nooyi, the PepsiCo CEO.

Musk, along with Kalanick and Nooyi will be advising the Trump administration on economic policy, Futurism reports. Specifically, they will be advising Trump on what the private sector will be able to do in order to advance economic reform. With the three CEOs being heavy hitters in the tech industry, their opinions are going to count for a lot despite what they personally think of Trump.

When Trump was still running for president Musk and Kalanick echoed the sentiment of most in the tech industry with regards to the real estate billionaire’s qualification for office. In fact, their bet had been Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton and made their choice rather obvious.

Now that Trump is the president-elect, many in the tech industry have expressed a willingness to cooperate with the incoming administration regardless of their concerns in terms of policies. It would seem that Trump himself welcomes the input of powerhouses in the private sector based on the statements he made on the matter, Newsweek reports.

“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,” Trump said.

Aside from the CEOs of Tesla, Uber, and PepsiCo, bigwigs from Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google will also be contributing to Trump’s economic platform. Despite differences in terms of immigration reform and climate change, tech leaders are rallying to make sure that the U.S. economy does well during Trump’s four years of presidency.