Elon Musk attends a meeting at Trump Tower in December Getty Images / Drew Angerer / Staff

SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity boss Elon Musk is warning against attacking the president, saying the best way to handle Donald Trump is to keep "open channels of communication with him".

The billionaire entrepreneur (Musk) made the comments in a Twitter conversation with Gizmodo during which he explained why he recently showed support for former Exxon Mobil chief and now secretary of state Rex Tillerson. He also discussed his views on taxes and the best ways to work with the controversial president.


Donald Trump on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, funding Nasa and the climate change 'hoax' Donald Trump Donald Trump on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, funding Nasa and the climate change 'hoax'

Musk said Trump needs to hear "more voices of reason" and "simply attacking him will achieve nothing". Adding: "Are you aware of a single case where Trump bowed to protests or media attacks?"

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It's possible Musk considers himself as one of those voices of reason. On December 14, before Trump was officially sworn into office, the SpaceX boss was included in Trump's Strategic and Policy forum. Alongside Uber's Travis Kalanick and Mary Barra from General Motors, the group was created to give industry insight on the private sector to Trump.

"The Forum, which is composed of some of America’s most highly respected and successful business leaders, will be called upon to meet with the president frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge as the president implements his economic agenda," Trump said in a statement at the time.


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It has also been announced Musk will join Trump’s new manufacturing council, along with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Dell CEO Michael Dell, and a host of other company representatives from Lockheed Martin Corporation, Boeing and the Ford Motor Company.

As well as the two forums, Musk was one of a number of prominent technology firm executives to meet at Trump Tower on December 14. The gathering was attended by leaders from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and more. During the meeting, the group discussed immigration and paid maternity leave.

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Since taking office, Trump and his team have been formulating new policies and deleting others from the White House website. So far, staff have removed references to LGBTQ issues and they've stood by Trump's divisive stance on climate change.

As far back as 2012, Trump claimed, in a tweet, climate change was "created by and for the Chinese" to make US manufacturing less competitive. The president has also committed to undoing the US involvement in the Paris climate change agreement and deleted all references of it from the White House website.

"The common good being consumed is atmospheric and oceanic carbon capacity, which currently has a price of zero," Musk said. "This results in an error in market signals and far more CO2 is generated than should be. We won’t ever go to zero CO2, but the rate over time should be dropped far below what it is today."


Musk also reaffirmed his support for Tillerson, who he says "did a competent job running Exxon". Tillerson's critics have claimed he is too close to Russia's Vladimir Putin and his role may create conflicts of interest.

While Musk has been at the receiving end of some backlash over his apparent support for the Trump administration, he has stood by his actions with this tweet summing up his response to critics: