A former top Uber executive to head the Department of Transportation. A former top aide to Peter Thiel to head the Department of Health and Human Services. And a cadre of other tech executives to join Elon Musk at the Department of Government Efficiency.
Such is the wish list for the elite of Silicon Valley at the dawn of the Trump administration. Behind closed doors over the last week, a range of tech leaders have put forth their own brethren in coordinated efforts to try to leave a distinctly Silicon Valley imprint on a cabinet lineup that appears to be open to persuasion.
Much of that power of persuasion has been trained on Mr. Musk. While the world’s richest man is not technically on Mr. Trump’s transition committee, he has become a de facto official of the incoming administration. Vice President-elect JD Vance, who formally serves on the transition committee, also has deep Silicon Valley ties from his former career as a venture capitalist.
All of which makes it easier for tech investors and executives — more so than those of other industries such as finance or oil and gas — to get Mr. Trump’s attention, even if the overtures ultimately fall flat. The Trump transition team did not immediately return a request for comment.
One of Mr. Musk’s friends, the investor and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, spent just over a day this week at Mar-a-Lago helping Mr. Musk with the transition effort, according to three people with knowledge of his activities. Mr. Lonsdale has told the transition team that he is not interested in a full-time government gig, but he and other longtime tech friends have helped funnel names and résumés into Mr. Musk’s orbit.
To lead the Department of Transportation, tech leaders have pushed Emil Michael, who was the No. 2 executive at Uber, the ride-hailing company, in its early years. Several Silicon Valley executives close to Mr. Michael have recommended him to Trump transition officials in recent days, five people with knowledge of the conversations said. Those conversations are in their early stages and other candidates are in the mix for the agency, two of the people said.
Mr. Michael is no stranger to Washington. During the Obama administration, he served as a White House fellow and special assistant to Robert Gates at the Department of Defense from 2009 to 2011. He has also worked at tech companies like TellMe Networks and Klout.
At Uber, he was chief operating officer under former chief executive Travis Kalanick. The two raised billions of dollars and grew the ride-hailing service globally before they were forced out in 2017 after a series of scandals. Mr. Michael and his allies have publicly defended his time at Uber.
To lead the Department of Health and Human Services, tech executives and investors sought to convince Mr. Trump to choose Jim O’Neill, two people with knowledge of the conversations said — but Mr. Trump ultimately selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his pick on Thursday.
Mr. O’Neill had been at the agency during President George W. Bush’s administration and later worked with Mr. Thiel, helping to establish the Thiel Fellowship, which encourages young people to skip college, in 2010. Mr. O’Neill was a finalist to lead the Food and Drug Administration in Mr. Trump’s first administration in 2016.
This time, Mr. O’Neill had his name floated to Mr. Musk and to Mr. Vance, with whom he worked briefly at Mithril Capital, a venture firm co-founded by Mr. Thiel, the two people said. Mr. O’Neill’s appointment was discussed in multiple group chats on Signal populated with Silicon Valley executives, and he had been expected to travel to Mar-a-Lago in the coming days.
“This administration will make key decisions on the rules — or lack of rules — that will shape the future of key technologies like artificial intelligence and crypto,” Adam Sterling, assistant dean at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, said in an interview. “It makes sense that tech and V.C. leaders would want to lead, or be a key part, of those decisions.”
Some tech leaders have privately shared that they find the opportunity to join the administration so alluring that they are willing to quit their jobs. But others are reluctant to take on full-time positions, lest they have to divest their assets or leave their companies.
That has led to intense interest in roles in the new administration that may not be as onerous or permanent. Some tech executives have scrambled to broker introductions to Mr. Musk to work on his and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency. It is unclear what the workload or requirements will be to join the group.
On Thursday, the Department of Government Efficiency offered something of a brushback pitch to those who saw it as just a plum garden-leave appointment common in the tech industry.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators,” the group wrote on X. “We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
A similar frenzy has unfolded around a Bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council that Mr. Trump promised to create to craft new regulations for the industry. Crypto executives have raced to get their names in the mix for the council, calling friends and colleagues who have connections to Mr. Trump and his allies.
Jeremy Allaire, the chief executive of the crypto company Circle, said in an interview that he was interested in joining the council. Two other executives, who requested anonymity to describe their plans for career advancement, said they were also personally angling to serve on it, with one of them remarking that he was “harassing everyone I know in the Trump orbit.”
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