Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has quit US President Donald Trump’s council of business leaders following intense criticism and boycott calls in the social media over the company’s tie to the Trump administration.
Kalanick wrote to his employees that he’d spoken with Trump on Thursday to “let him know that I would not be able to participate on his economic 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.”
“Earlier today I spoke briefly with the president about the immigration executive order and its issues for our community,” Kalanick wrote in the email.
Full email from Travis Kalanick to Uber staff pic.twitter.com/SQLM4Q83si
— Julia Carrie Wong (@juliacarriew) February 2, 2017
The first meeting of the business leaders at the White House was scheduled on Friday.
The business council, led by chairman of Blackstone Stephen Schwarzman , has about 15 members, including the leaders of Tesla, Pepsi and Walmart.
According to a press statement released by Blackstone, The business council is ‘designed to provide direct input to the president from many of the best and brightest in the business world in a frank, non-bureaucratic, and non-partisan manner,’
The transportation network company faced a viral boycott campaign in the wake of Trump’s controversial executive order banning immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Uber’s non-participation in a strike called by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance and Kalanick’s position in the economic advisory group, led many users to pledge to #DeleteUber, a hashtag that became viral on social media.
