Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla join tech companies fighting Trump

7 Feb 2017

Despite being a member of Trump’s economic advisory council, Elon Musk has insisted Tesla and SpaceX join the brief. Image: Helga Esteb/Shutterstock

Although he remains on Donald Trump’s advisory board, Elon Musk has insisted Tesla and SpaceX join the fight against the US president’s executive order on immigration.

Yesterday (6 February), 97 US tech companies including Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Twitter and Microsoft filed an ‘amicus brief’ voicing opposition to US president Donald Trump’s controversial immigration order.

That number has since swelled to include 29 other companies such as Adobe, Bungie, Slack and now, Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX and car manufacturer Tesla.

The companies filed an amicus brief in a case at the ninth circuit court of appeals in San Francisco, brought by the states of Minnesota and Washington, to challenge Trump’s executive order.

The tech companies were due to file their brief later this week but accelerated their moves ias a result of critical developments over the weekend.

District court judge James Robart issued a ruling on Friday, effectively blocking the president’s ‘Muslim Ban’.

Trumping Trump

Musk is a member of Trump’s economic advisory council, while former PayPal colleague Peter Thiel is part of the inner circle of advisors.

According to The Verge, while Musk was not an original signatory of the amicus brief, as soon as he saw it, he insisted that Tesla and SpaceX jump on board.

Musk has been relatively quiet on the subject of the immigration order, but did tweet that it was “not the best way to address the country’s challenges”.

Musk himself hails from South Africa while Peter Thiel is of German descent.

Major tech brands that have not joined the brief – as yet – include IBM, Yahoo and Oracle.

Trump’s executive order to restrict travel to the US for citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan caused mass confusion at airports around the world last week.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com