Some tech investors and executives have been trying to influence the incoming Trump administration to appoint Silicon Valley insiders for cabinet positions, the New York Times reported.
Given Elon Musk’s strong relationship with Donald Trump, a significant portion of tech leaders’ persuasion efforts have been directed towards him.
Friends of Musk, like Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder of Palantir and venture firm 8VC, have suggested names of potential cabinet heads.
Several Silicon Valley executives recommended Emil Michael, ex-Uber COO, to head the Department of Transportation. Prior to joining Uber in 2011, Michael served in the Obama administration as a White House fellow and a special assistant to Robert Gates at the Department of Defense. Michael was reportedly forced out of Uber in 2017, shortly before Uber’s founder Travis Kalanick was pushed to resign from the company.
Jim O’Neill, who worked with Peter Thiel to establish the Thiel Fellowship, a program that wants young tech entrepreneurs to quit college, was suggested to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. O’Neill was in the running to head the FDA during Trump’s first administration, according to the New York Times.
Although O’Neill was considered, on Thursday, Trump chose vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health.