Tech 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, many of these persuasion efforts have been directed towards him, including by friends of Musk like Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder of Palantir and venture firm 8VC, who has reportedly proposed some ideas.
Tech leaders have also reportedly floated Emil Michael, ex-Uber COO, to head the Department of Transportation. Before joining Uber in 2011, Michael was a White House fellow in the Obama administration 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, a longtime associate of Peter Thiel, was meanwhile suggested to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, said the Times, though Trump chose vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. O’Neill’s name has come up before, notes the outlet. He was recommended to head the FDA during Trump’s first administration; at the time, he was working for Thiel’s Mithril Capital Management .
