Not long after the inauguration, the White House under America’s 45th president Donald Trump, reached out to the respective heads of the country’s most eminent companies.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was one of those asked to join a new economic advisory board as well as in a manufacturing jobs initiatives council, but in the months that have passed the relationship with members therein and Mr. Trump were reported to have cooled significantly.
Tensions came to a head following the Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement, drawing international criticism and diplomatic rebukes. Seeing as how the committee’s recommendations - which included remaining in the Paris Accord - seem to have fallen on indifferent ears, Musk along with Disney CEO Bob Iger have walked out, with the former citing the president’s stance climate change being a major motivating factor while Mr. Iger called his exit “a matter of principal”.
Musk, via Twitter, previously stated he would quit the advisory role should Trump come out against the Paris agreement prior to the decision's announcement, while several other of the remaining members are facing calls - internally and publicly - to depart as well.
Earlier this year, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigned from the advisory board following Trump’s signing of the executive order to bar those travelling into the United States from several Muslim majority countries. The order, which was deemed discriminatory, was promptly blocked (first) by the US Court of Appeals in the state of Washington and, at the time of this writing, continues to face legal hurdles and has not passed legal scrutiny for it to be enforced.
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