Tesla CEO Elon Musk listens to President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House on Jan. 23. | Getty Elon Musk threatens to leave White House councils over Paris deal

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that if President Donald Trump follows through on pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate - change agreement, he'd "have no choice" but to stop advising the White House.

Musk's line in the sand is the latest sign of tension between Trump and Silicon Valley just as his administration attempts to attract tech executives to the White House for a sweeping, high-profile summit on June 19.


"Don't know which way Paris will go, but I've done all I can to advise directly to POTUS, through others in WH & via councils, that we remain," Musk tweeted. Musk followed up with a tweet saying, "Will have no choice but to depart councils" if Trump pulls out of the Paris deal backed by nearly 200 other countries.

POLITICO and others have reported that Trump is expected to withdraw the U.S. from the climate agreement.

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Other major tech companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google and Salesforce, have put their names to a full-page ad that will run Thursday in T he New York Times and T he Wall Street Journal, calling on Trump to "advance U.S. interests by remaining a full partner in this vital global effort." The ad ran earlier this month but has been renewed because of the news of Trump's thinking on the Paris deal.

Tech CEOs have been under widespread pressure, including in some cases from their own liberal-leaning workforces, to cut off engagement with Trump over his stances on immigration, LGBT issues and the environment. IBM's Ginni Rometty, for example, was the target of a campaign by employees to uphold the company's "core values of diversity, inclusiveness, and ethical business conduct" in response to her outreach to Trump early in his administration.

Musk's warning carries particular weight because he's become one of the Trump White House's go-to tech industry executives. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has taken part, for example, in the so-called President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down from that group in February after a public backlash. At the time, Musk decided to stay involved, saying, "I believe at this time that engaging on critical issues will on balance serve the greater good."

Musk's threatened break with Trump comes as the White House is trying to bring tech CEOs and other executives to Washington for a summit next month on modernizing government technology, cybersecurity, immigration and other topics. Oracle CEO Safra Catz, who played a role in the Trump transition, and Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins plan to attend the event, but other industry executives haven't confirmed their participation yet.

Dean Garfield, president of the Information Technology Industry Council — whose member roster includes Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter — said in a statement that it's "not too late to for the president to stay the course and work with the tech industry to ensure that more clean energy jobs continue to go to Americans and that U.S. leadership in innovation is second to none."

Trump was asked during a brief press availability in the Oval Office on Wednesday whether CEOs and others had been in touch to try to persuade him on the deal. The president, according to a pool report, said, “I’m hearing from a lot of people, both ways. Both ways.”

Steven Overly contributed to this report.

