Travis Kalanick
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said he has decided to step down
from the president's Strategic and Policy Forum because his participation was viewed
as an endorsement of Donald Trump's policies.
Kalanick and Tesla CEO Elon Musk were among the technology
leaders selected in December to join the economic advisory board. Both
executives received criticism from the largely liberal technology sector for
agreeing to work with the incoming president.
That criticism intensified after President Trump on Friday
issued an executive order banning travel to the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim
countries for 90 days.
"Earlier today I spoke briefly with the President about
the immigration executive order and its issues for our community. I also let
him know that I would not be able to participate on his economic council,"
Kalanick wrote in a memo sent to Uber employees on Thursday. "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."
Uber had already received criticism for its response to the
ban. After the New York Taxi Workers Alliance staged a one-hour strike in
response to the travel ban at John F. Kennedy Airport last Saturday, Uber
responded by tweeting that it would not implement its "surge pricing"
for periods of particularly high demand.
As a result, the hashtag #DeleteUber went viral on social
media. Uber apologized for "confusion about our earlier tweet" and
clarified that the notice wasn't meant to break the strike. Kalanick
subsequently added his signature to an open letter from a group called Tech:
NYC that asked for Trump to rescind the travel ban.
"We will fight for the rights of immigrants in our
communities so that each of us can be who we are with optimism and hope for the
future," Kalanick wrote in Thursday's memo.