Photo by Wang K’aichicn/VCG/VCG via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Travis Kalanick, CEO of ride sharing company Uber, stepped down from President Donald Trump’s economic council on Thursday, citing misinterpretation of his choice to join that council.
Days after Twitter users got the hashtag #DeleteUber trending after the company was accused of seeking to profit by giving rides to and from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York during a protest against President Trump’s immigration order. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance had announced that they would join the protesters and not take fares to or from the airport over the weekend.
Kalanick, the New York Times reports, faced questions from many company employees who wanted to know why he would continue to work with the president after the unpopular immigration order.
On Thursday, Kalanick wrote a memo to employees saying that “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.”
Kalanick said that he discussed the immigration order with Trump, and also informed him of the decision not to serve on the economic council.
He also wrote that “the implicit assumption that Uber (or I) was somehow endorsing the Administration’s agenda has created a perception-reality gap between who people think we are, and who we actually are.”
“We will continue to advocate for just change on immigration but staying on the council was going to get in the way of that,” he added. “The executive order is hurting many people in communities across America. Families are being separated, people are stranded overseas, and there’s a growing fear the U.S. is no longer a place that welcomes immigrants.”
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