Leaked Email Has Uber’s Vietnamese CTO Ripping Donald Trump Apart
By Ryan General
January 25, 2017
An Uber internal email heavily critical of Donald Trump was meant to be circulated among a small group of employees but it has spread quickly throughout the company and has now emerged online.
The heavily-worded message, penned by Uber chief technology officer Thuan Pham just after the 2016 presidential election, included passages comparing Trump’s election to the rise of dictators such as China’s Mao Zedong and Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.
Pham’s email, which was reportedly sent to an internal Uber email list for LGBTQ employees last November, has been leaked in an internal chat room, according to Business Insider.
In the message, in which the Vietnamese CTO never even uttered Trump’s name, appears to have been a response to a previous email.
Here’s the full text:
“Likewise, I could hardly sleep at night. I am still shocked and numbed from the absolutely illogical outcomes of this election. When the election outcome certifies the dumbing down of America, the racist, divisive and hateful attitudes, the politics of obstruction and destruction, our country has taken a huge step backward that might take decades to course correct (especially when it comes to the make up of the Supreme Court justices and the issues that will come before them).
It is absolutely illogical and insane to believe that we can solve the hardest diplomatic, policy, and societal problems by putting in charge a person who doesn’t know much about any such thing. How can we sleep peaceful at night for the next 4 years knowing that the biggest societal problems rests on his lack of intellectual curiosity, judgment and temperament? It is indeed terrifying! This is an emperor with no clothe [sic], and things will get very ugly before his reign is over.
We can weep at this momentary loss, but we cannot allow ourselves to wallow in misery for long. We need to call up our inner resolve to get back up and keep fighting for a better world. The fight will be hard and long, but we just have to do it. In two years, all the people who were conned into voting for this person will see the harm he will have done and there will be an opening to move the Senate toward the blue side to check his power. And then we’ll have to work hard to make sure the next president in 4 years will be a Democrat and wins in a landslide.
Unless this ignoramus triggers a nuclear holocaust that wipes out civilization as we know it, the long arc of history will continue to bend toward more social justice and equality and a better lives [sic] for people around the world. We are already living in a far more tolerant and inclusive world today than 50 years ago, than 100 years ago, etc… And the quality of life and comfort for an average person today already far exceeds the Kings and Queens just a few centuries ago (we have telephone, electricity, modern medicines, car & plane transportation, etc.). But we all need to keep charging forward to create and fight for the future that we want, technologically and socially.
Occasionally, the world takes a step backward with such things as world wars, Mao Tse-dong, Khmer Rouge, Darfur, W. Bush and his wars, etc., and now this. But I am optimistic that the world will correct itself, even if [sic] takes another catastrophe for American [sic] to usher in the next Obama as our president. In the meantime, for the next four years, I will not even utter the name of this deplorable person because I do not accept him as my leader. I will instead do everything I can to help defeat him and his destructive agenda over the next few years.
Time to put on our Champion’s Mindset and pick ourselves off the floor. There is much work that we can do to help make this world a better place, through what we do here at work and in our society.”
It is absolutely illogical and insane to believe that we can solve the hardest diplomatic, policy, and societal problems by putting in charge a person who doesn’t know much about any such thing. How can we sleep peaceful at night for the next 4 years knowing that the biggest societal problems rests on his lack of intellectual curiosity, judgment and temperament? It is indeed terrifying! This is an emperor with no clothe [sic], and things will get very ugly before his reign is over.
We can weep at this momentary loss, but we cannot allow ourselves to wallow in misery for long. We need to call up our inner resolve to get back up and keep fighting for a better world. The fight will be hard and long, but we just have to do it. In two years, all the people who were conned into voting for this person will see the harm he will have done and there will be an opening to move the Senate toward the blue side to check his power. And then we’ll have to work hard to make sure the next president in 4 years will be a Democrat and wins in a landslide.
Unless this ignoramus triggers a nuclear holocaust that wipes out civilization as we know it, the long arc of history will continue to bend toward more social justice and equality and a better lives [sic] for people around the world. We are already living in a far more tolerant and inclusive world today than 50 years ago, than 100 years ago, etc… And the quality of life and comfort for an average person today already far exceeds the Kings and Queens just a few centuries ago (we have telephone, electricity, modern medicines, car & plane transportation, etc.). But we all need to keep charging forward to create and fight for the future that we want, technologically and socially.
Occasionally, the world takes a step backward with such things as world wars, Mao Tse-dong, Khmer Rouge, Darfur, W. Bush and his wars, etc., and now this. But I am optimistic that the world will correct itself, even if [sic] takes another catastrophe for American [sic] to usher in the next Obama as our president. In the meantime, for the next four years, I will not even utter the name of this deplorable person because I do not accept him as my leader. I will instead do everything I can to help defeat him and his destructive agenda over the next few years.
Time to put on our Champion’s Mindset and pick ourselves off the floor. There is much work that we can do to help make this world a better place, through what we do here at work and in our society.”
Pham’s email was again circulated internally among other employees last week, just as Uber management is being denounced for its recent affiliation with the Trump government.
A few days ago, it was announced that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick will be joining Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Disney CEO Bob Iger among the 19 executives chosen as President Trump’s advisers on economic policy.
When the news broke out on Friday, protesters blockaded the front of Uber’s San Francisco headquarters to condemn the company’s perceived “collaboration” with Trump.
Kalanick would later address the Trump issue during a company meeting by explaining his intentions of joining the Trump team of economic advisers:
“The CEO of Disney, the CEO of IBM, the CEO of GM, the CEO of Uber, the CEO of Tesla, and maybe 15 other companies you’ve heard of … We have a party — our political party is called the Urban Mobility Party. The shorthand is UMP. We’re a coalition party; we’ll partner with anyone in the world as long they’re about making transportation in cities better, creating job opportunities, making it easier to get around, getting pollution out of the air and traffic off the streets. And so that’s what this is about. It’s about the leaders we have to work with around the world, not just here in the United States but everywhere. And being optimistic — asking can we make urban mobility better? But does it [the board/protests] make great headlines? Of course.”
Share this Article
Share this Article
