If you’re a man who wants to settle Mars and have electric cars swarm the Earth, then having friends in high places makes sense. Musk, for example, has been pushing to get Pete Worden, a longtime commercial space supporter, tapped as the new director of NASA. Worden advised SpaceX early on and could advocate for the company.
Derwin, though, argues Musk has already lost whatever influence may have existed. Despite Musk’s presence, Trump has moved to cut funding to the sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency, while rolling back regulations against coal mining companies. “Short of putting a big pile of old tires on the White House lawn and lighting them on fire, I don’t know what Donald Trump could do that is worse for climate change,” Derwin says. “Musk got rolled by Trump. He has gotten absolutely nothing.”
Derwin recently told Musk’s camp about his campaign and asked to meet with the CEO. Musk declined, but did have three top lieutenants sit down with Derwin. Nothing much came of the meeting, Derwin said, prompting him to go live with the web site and other efforts. Musk declined to comment through a spokesman.
“If Elon will resign from the boards and speak out against what Trump is doing, I’ll call off the campaign,” Derwin says. He’s pledged to donate $1 million to the charity of Musk’s choice, if Musk dons a “Resist” hat and tweets that he disagrees with Trump’s climate-change policies.
Derwin has his work cut out. Musk revels in the opportunity to prove critics wrong and rarely backs down from a fight. The uproar over advising Trump has died down, and Musk continues to dazzle fans and confound naysayers: Tesla’s share price has surged to records this year and SpaceX has upended the aerospace industry by proving the abilities of its reusable rockets. The baggage that comes with Trump associations in Silicon Valley circles seems to have done little to dull Musk’s shine.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.