This Wednesday, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, published a series of tweets. In these, he abandoned his role as an adviser to the group formed by Trump, which has the aim of assisting him with economic strategy dossiers and which also includes CEOs of companies such as JPMorgan Chase & Company, The Walt Disney Company and IBM.
The world-famous entrepreneur’s tweets are a clear attempt to dissuade the American president from continuing with the policy pursued so far against climate change. Donald Trump recently said on several occasions that he is not going to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement, intended to try to control environmental damage by setting a ceiling on emissions produced by each country. For a man like Musk, who built his fortune on electric cars, it would have been impossible to stay silent on a relevant issue such as that posed by the dangers of climate change.
Musk is one of the 18 businessmen called by the president at the beginning of his term to be part of the new administration’s business council, called the Strategic and Policy Forum. But the founding father of the masterpiece that is SpaceX, having just finished a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to send supplies to the International Space Station, is also one of Trump’s key men for his project on work-related reform in America, one of the most important issues for “The Donald” since the election campaign. Musk was already on a collision course with Trump when the president set up the much-discussed “travel ban” that prohibited entry into the United States for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries that Trump considered to be sources of danger. This time, however, Musk has no intention of accepting the U.S. president’s decision. And despite being expressed through tweets, the message sent to the U.S. president should not be underestimated. Namely, “If you decide to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, I will leave my advisory role.”
The U.S.-naturalized South African businessman is not a man of politics, and facts usually follow his words; in protest, he has already missed the last two meetings of the strategic council that he belongs to. Musk has been heavily criticized by the media for agreeing to join Trump’s team, but this never worried him, because he was aware of how much his contribution could have meant for the good of the community – not just in America but globally. He said it himself. His threat should therefore not be seen as a personal attack on Trump, but rather as an attempt to bring the president back to the straight and narrow on a subject of such importance as that of climate change, which is inexorably changing life on our planet. Musk is not only one of the world’s most famous business people, but is also one of the few who enjoys respect from citizens, not only in the United States but also in Europe. If he were to abandon Trump’s advisory council, it would be a hard blow to the image of the White House resident, which has already been put to the test. It wouldn’t be just a blow to him as a president, but also as a credible businessman.
*Editor’s note: This Twitter quote, accurately translated, could not be verified. Instead the following tweet from Elon Musk was found in multiple sources, “Will have no choice but to depart councils in that case,” responding to the question “What will you do if he decides to leave?” referring to Trump leaving the Paris Agreement.
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