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Tesla and SpaceX CEO met with Donald Trump on Monday, and just a day later, he\u2019s expressing optimism about Trump\u2019s choice for Secretary of State, former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson.<\/p>\n
On the surface, you\u2019d be forgiven for assuming that Tillerson as Secretary of State would be at odds with Musk\u2019s worldview, given the former\u2019s 40+ years of service at a company that produces fossil fuels as its primary business. But Musk replied to an Economics post outlining reasons Tillerson might not be such a bad choice to lead U.S. foreign policy decision-making under Trump.<\/p>\n
\n@TheEconomist<\/a> This may sound surprising coming from me, but I agree with The Economist. Rex Tillerson has the potential to be an excellent Sec of State.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 24, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
Musk also replied to requests from followers to shed light on why, exactly, he would hold such a counterintuitive opinion regarding Tillerson\u2019s selection. The Tesla founder called Tillerson \u201cexceptionally competent,\u201d referring specifically to his tenure at Exxon, and also praised his understanding of global politics. He added in a separate tweet that he believes Tillerson deserves \u201cthe benefit of the doubt\u201d pending actions that would contradict that optimism<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n@danahull<\/a> Rex is an exceptionally competent executive, understands geopolitics and knows how to win for his team. His team is now the USA.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 24, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
Tillerson has supported a carbon tax previously in his role leading CEO as the most effective way to control industrial impact on climate change, but his former company is under investigation by the state of New York<\/a> for potentially misleading the public regarding climate change\u2019s effects. In the end, critics suggest Tillerson\u2019s prior acknowledgement of climate change as a problem and proposed solutions were more about alleviating criticism levied against ExxonMobil, and less about effecting real change.<\/p>\n
The proposed Secretary of State, who moved one step closer to becoming confirmed in his role, also has close ties to Russia, including a deal made in 2011 in which he exchanged arctic drilling rights for access to supply from Texas and Gulf of Mexico oil fields, as TIME noted\u00a0in December<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Musk met with Donald Trump previously at a sit-down with tech industry leaders late last year, and also joined his Strategic and Policy Forum. In a prior QA with investors, he noted that Trump\u2019s obvious bullishness on fossil fuels might not necessarily preclude potential upside for the alternative fuels sector<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Because SpaceX and Tesla also house so much of their manufacturing operation in the U.S., Musk also likely has reason to be optimistic given Trump\u2019s vocal promotion of U.S.-based manufacturing and regulatory relaxation for companies that choose to build domestically. Still, it\u2019s incredibly weird and at least a little troubling to see him express positive feelings about a Secretary of State pick whose career history has seemed at odds with the public corporate missions of both Tesla and SolarCity.<\/p>\n
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Featured Image: Alex Wong\/Getty Images\/Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n
Article source: https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2017\/01\/24\/elon-musk-actually-believes-rex-tillerson-could-be-an-excellent-secretary-of-state\/?ncid=rss<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tesla and SpaceX CEO met with Donald Trump on Monday, and just a day later, he\u2019s expressing optimism about Trump\u2019s choice for Secretary of State, former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-3072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-networking-and-communication","tag-network-and-communication"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t