President Trump will jet off to his Palm Beach mansion Friday afternoon, but not before facing a handful of business leaders who are eager to note their objections to his controversial immigration ban.
The president met on Friday with members of his business advisory council, an eclectic mix of tech and automobile executives who are led by Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman.
“The real purpose of this is to get things done, to advise the government on the areas where we can do things a lot better,” Schwarzman said at the beginning of the meeting, which occurred in the White House State Dining Room.
But the meeting comes as several high-profile companies continue to oppose the administration’s temporary ban on immigration from seven countries. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who was expected to participate in Friday’s roundtable, announced that he had quit the council late Thursday evening under mounting pressure from employees and outside groups.
“Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda, but unfortunately it has been interpreted to be exactly that,” Kalanick had said.
Others who have chosen to continue advising the president entered the meeting intent on asking Trump to consider reversing elements of his executive order on immigration and his 120-day suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
One member of Trump’s business council, Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk, said he would engage directly with the president to request that improvements be made to the order.
“In tomorrow’s meeting, I and others will express our objections to the recent executive order on immigration and offer suggestions for changes to the policy,” he said in a statement Thursday.
Musk and Schwarzman were joined by chief executives from General Motors, PepsiCo, BlackRock, Walmart and Boeing. Energy expert Daniel Yergin, former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, incoming Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly were also present for the meeting with the president.
