Days after being sworn in, President Donald Trump released a series of executive orders. The travel ban, which is currently suspended, would have prevented refugees from entering the United States for 120 days.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is a member of Trump’s business advisory council. Across social media over the weekend, the hashtag #DeleteUber encouraged those in opposition to the so-called “Muslim ban” to remove their app in protest.
The idea that members of Trump’s advisory board should be punished places the blame in the wrong place. Although Trump hasn’t yet proven himself to be an active leader in regard to the environment, he has at least hired modern thinkers who believe in climate change. Another member of the council is Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Space X, who has started building underground tunnels in Los Angeles to combat traffic and overpopulation.
In response to the heat and for the sake of his company, Kalanick left the advisory council.
“Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda, but unfortunately, it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that,” Kalanick said in a memo obtained by CNN.
Kalanick’s argument is a reasonable one. The facts are that Trump is our president, and he has to make decisions about our safety, economy and the environment. Instead of leaving him in the dark to make calls about America’s well-being on a global scale, Trump should at least receive input from people that are on the cutting edge of technology and experts in their respective fields.
People are misconstruing Musk’s and Kalanick’s positions on the board as alignments with the president himself. The bottom line is Trump will make decisions regardless of who advises him.
More importantly, members don’t necessarily support every decision that the president enacts. What seems to be happening is the American people are associating Trump’s decisions with his advisory council and placing the blame with them.
While Kalanick had great intention’s when joining the economic advisory board, many Americans have decided that they would rather his company not associate with the new administration. It would prove enormously difficult, however, to find individuals that are 100 percent supportive of all Trump’s plans, making the decision of some to help advise him that much more deserving of our collective respect and understanding.
Elon Musk has decided to stay on board, which could have a positive impact on our future. Despite some consumers opting to cancel their Tesla Model 3 orders in protest, Musk believes that it wouldn’t be logical to have extremists on the advisory board.
Americans are misguided in thinking that Musk is working for Trump, when in fact he is only advising Trump. The president can do with that information what he pleases — which means he can ignore it, if he so chooses.
