The world’s premier ride-hailing app has paid fealty to the incoming Republican president despite its executives’ long-standing contempt for his policies.
Uber Technologies and the group’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, have contributed $1 million each to Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration in January, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Born in Tehran, Khosrowshahi has historically proven himself a stalwart critic of the president-elect, in particular having lambasted Trump over his 2017 ban on immigration from six Muslim-majority countries.
“I emigrated here when I was 9 years old; my family had to flee Iran,” Khosrowshahi previously told CNBC. “The American dream is you come here, you believe in democracy, you believe in the Constitution, you work hard, you can make it. That’s what makes this country great, and I think the president should be for that, not against it.”
The WSJ adds the Iranian-American businessman did not in fact pay anything at all toward President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration, and that the recent contribution represents his largest ever donation to a political candidate, signalling “Uber’s eagerness to work with the incoming administration.”
Adding further awkwardness to the mix is that Uber’s chief legal officer, Tony West, is the brother-in-law of Biden’s vice president—and Trump’s erstwhile opponent for the presidency—Kamala Harris.
West in fact took a leave of absence from his post at the tech group to volunteer for Harris ahead of the November election, and is understood to have since returned to his role at the company.
