Trump's newest advisers include Elon Musk, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
His transition team made the announcement ahead of a tech summit planned for this week.
President-elect Donald Trump 's Strategic and Policy Forum consists of some very successful businesspeople, who will help craft the administration's policies. To get a better grasp on the transportation sector, Trump is calling on Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
These new advisers are joined by Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, Trump's transition team announced in a post on GreatAgain.gov. As part of the forum, they will meet with Trump regularly to share views on government policies and how to create an environment that will help American businesses prosper and create jobs over the next four years and beyond.
Tesla declined to comment, but it did confirm that Musk accepted Trump's invitation to join the forum. Uber responded via email with a statement from Kalanick: "I look forward to engaging with our incoming president and this group on issues that affect our riders, drivers and the 450+ cities where we operate," the statement said.
The new additions to the Strategic and Policy Forum come hours before Trump is slated to meet with tech leaders from across the country. It might get a bit... awkward, considering Trump's talked plenty of trash about the tech industry in the past, including jabs at companies and even specific executives who will attend the summit, as CNET noted in its preview of the get-together.
Musk and Kalanick haven't been shy about Trump, either. As The Washington Post notes, Musk previously said Trump was "not the right guy" for the presidency, and Kalanick made a joke in 2015 about moving to China if Donald Trump were elected. Kalanick has not moved to China, but reportedly won't attend the summit either, citing travel issues. Maybe his Uber driver never showed up.
The Strategic and Policy Forum is positively loaded with CEOs. Business leaders in multiple industries, from Boeing and JPMorgan Chase to Walt Disney and General Motors , are all contributing their voices to the conversation about how to "improve the business climate," as Trump said in a statement.