Campaign Urging Elon Musk To Cut Trump Ties Ramps Up
SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) – A Bay Area venture capitalist is now spending millions of dollars on advertising calling out Tesla founder Elon Musk for his ties to the Trump administration.
"Everyone knows Elon Musk. He's Tony Stark. He's a hero. Him speaking out would make a difference," said, Doug Derwin, who is on a mission to get Musk to resign from President Donald Trump's business advisory team and manufacturing jobs initiative.
At issue? The president's record on the environment.
"We had Scott Pruitt appointed as head of the EPA, the EPA budget according to Trump's budget he is going to cut EPA by 31% which is a massive cut for any agency," Derwin told KPIX 5. "And he issued an Executive Order telling EPA and other federal agencies to eliminate all their climate change programs."
Musk said he's committed to stopping climate change and his electric cars are popular among the wealthy and environmentally conscious. Which is why Derwin says, Elon musk has to dump Trump.
First, the campaign started with billboards. "In the beginning started with billboards in Fremont, Hawthorne and Palo Alto," Derwin said.
Then Derwin's campaign added a Twitter account, a Change.org petition, and a website. On Sunday, the campaign paid for full-page newspaper ads in the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News.
Derwin said that's not all. "In the next week we're going up on the air with TV ads that will run in 'Meet the Press', 'Morning Joe' and 'Full Frontal with Samantha Bee'," he said. "In about two weeks we're going to put a new set of billboards in six cities across the country."
Tesla issued a statement on Sunday saying, "Mr. Derwin believes those who want a more sustainable future should not have a seat at the table. We disagree."
But Derwin said Musk has been at the table for months and it hasn't had any impact.
"My question to Musk at what point do you give up on trying to influence these people from the inside because it's not working," he said, "What's working is you are serving as a propaganda tool for Donald Trump.
Derwin said he put a $150,000 deposit on a Tesla for himself, but when he learned about Musk's involvement with the Trump administration, he gave up his deposit and donated the full cost of the Tesla to the American Civil Liberties Union.
