Uber CEO Travis Kalanick leaves Trump's economic council after #DeleteUber backlash

Travis Kalanick.
(Image credit: Steve Jennings/Getty Images)

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick will leave President Trump's economic advisory council, Recode reports. Kalanick's decision to remain a part of Trump's economic group after Trump signed an executive order banning individuals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. prompted backlash against Kalanick's ride-hailing app, with many rallying earlier this week to #DeleteUber and flocking to competitor app Lyft instead.

In a letter sent to employees Thursday and obtained by The New York Times, Kalanick wrote that he had informed Trump earlier Thursday that he could not join the economic council. "Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda," Kalanick wrote, "but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that."

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.