This tech CEO backed Harris, but says Dems should embrace Elon Musk

Summary

POLITICO Tech Podcast Summary

Episode Title: This tech CEO backed Harris, but says Dems should embrace Elon Musk
Host: Stephen Overlea
Guest: Aaron Levy, CEO of BOK
Release Date: November 15, 2024

Introduction

In this episode of POLITICO Tech, host Stephen Overlea reconnects with Aaron Levy, CEO of BOK, to discuss the aftermath of the recent election where Republican Donald Trump secured the presidency, despite Levy’s prior support for Democrat Kamala Harris. The conversation delves into Levy's perspectives on working with the incoming administration, the role of Elon Musk in government efficiency, and critiques of the Democratic Party's strategies.

Aaron Levy’s Shift in Political Support

Levy begins by addressing his initial support for Kamala Harris and his subsequent shift in focus following Trump's election victory. He emphasizes the potential for productive collaboration with the Trump administration, particularly in areas promoting technology and innovation.

Aaron Levy [01:46]: “I’m fully on board for this new administration. And I think there’s a lot that can be accomplished in the next four years with his agenda.”

Potential Collaboration with the Trump Administration

Levy expresses optimism about working with Trump, citing opportunities for deregulation and fostering innovation. He highlights his alignment with Elon Musk’s vision for solving complex problems and accelerating technological advancements.

Aaron Levy [05:00]: “If we want the 21st century in America to look like the success we’ve had economically, we should set up the country to build more, innovate more, move faster.”

Critique of the Democratic Party’s Strategy

Levy critiques the Democratic Party for lacking emphasis on pragmatic policies that address everyday concerns such as safe cities, housing, and education. He argues that the party has failed to balance pro-business and pro-innovation policies with necessary social safety nets.

Aaron Levy [03:00]: “There’s not enough emphasis on reasonable, pragmatic things that most people would want from their government... We can have pro-business policies that also protect the social safety net.”

The Role of Elon Musk in Government Efficiency

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on Elon Musk’s potential role as co-leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency. Levy lauds Musk’s track record in reducing costs and driving innovation in industries like space exploration and electric vehicles.

Aaron Levy [09:33]: “When Elon has a vision for accomplishing something, he effectively finds a way to manifest it into reality. He’s an unrelenting force in solving previously intractable problems.”

Levy underscores Musk’s ability to bypass bureaucratic hurdles, citing SpaceX’s reduction in rocket launch costs as a prime example of successful innovation overcoming regulatory obstacles.

Aaron Levy [09:14]: “The cost of rocket launches remained flat for decades until SpaceX was created, leading to a precipitous drop overnight.”

Balancing Deregulation and Protections

While advocating for deregulation to spur innovation, Levy acknowledges the potential risks of overdoing it. He stresses the importance of thoughtful implementation to avoid negative impacts on the environment and vulnerable populations.

Aaron Levy [07:16]: “We have to decide what the bigger priority is... There is a point where it can reach past the threshold of actually being productive.”

Levy emphasizes the need for strategic deregulation that supports growth while safeguarding against significant adverse effects.

Path to Bipartisan Cooperation

Levy envisions a future where bipartisan collaboration is possible through the pursuit of positive, solution-oriented policies. He believes that focusing on pragmatic solutions rather than ideological divides can bridge the current political rifts.

Aaron Levy [17:07]: “Positive solutions to problems can bring people together. If the solutions are not overly ideological, we can get behind them and move forward.”

He hopes that both parties can transcend their differences by prioritizing the nation’s growth and technological leadership.

Conclusion

Aaron Levy concludes by advocating for the Democrats to support leaders like Elon Musk who are committed to innovation and economic growth. He argues that embracing such figures can help the United States maintain its leadership in critical industries and foster a more optimistic future for the next generation.

Aaron Levy [12:55]: “Democrats should support anyone willing to make America the leader in industries like space, manufacturing, energy, AI, biotechnology. That’s what will create more jobs and excite the next generation.”

Host Stephen Overlea wraps up the episode by acknowledging the complexities of the current political landscape and the potential for significant developments in the intersection of technology and policy.

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This episode provides insightful perspectives on the intersection of technology and politics, emphasizing the importance of innovation-driven policies and the potential for cross-party collaboration to address the nation’s most pressing challenges.

Transcript

[Stephen Overlea]

Hey, welcome back to Politico tech. Today's Friday, November 15th. I'm Stephen Overlea. Over the summer, I called up BOK CEO Aaron Levy to talk about his decision to back Democrat Kamala Harris for president. Well, a few months and one historic election night later, I decided to call him up again. This time, I wanted to hear how he plans to handle the return of Republican President Donald Trump. It turns out Aaron sees potential to work with the incoming administration on deregulation and what he calls pro innovation issues. And a key reason for that is his Silicon Valley compatriot, Elon Musk. Aaron told me Musk has a track record of solving really complex problems, sending rockets into space, building cars powered by electricity. And now, as co leader of Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency, he's faced with the challenge of trying to tame the federal beast.

[Aaron Levy]

I don't think there's a better person for this particular task, let's say, than Elon because of, again, how I think resistant the government normally would be to this type of change.

[Stephen Overlea]

On the show today, Aaron tells me what he hopes Republicans get right, where he thinks Democrats went wrong, and why he believes Washington needs to give Musk a chance. Here's our conversation. Hey, Aaron, welcome back to Politico Tech.

[Aaron Levy]

Good to be here. Thanks for having me back.

[Stephen Overlea]

So you were here in August. We were talking then about your support for the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. You know, election night did not turn out as you hoped. I wonder where your head is at now.

[Aaron Levy]

Yeah, so I think there's sort of two ways of thinking about it. So there's one which is Trump won the presidency and finding the right ways to support a Trump administration in a number of areas where I think we can actually have a lot of good progress in tech and innovation and deregulation in some key areas. And so that's sort of one area, and that's been, you know, 90% of my focus mentally on this particular topic. It's still a very small percentage of my overall kind of time. But, you know, I'm, you know, fully on board for this new administration. And I think there's a lot of things that can be accomplished in the next four years and with his agenda. And I certainly think Elon is going to be a very kind of productive part of all that. So we can get into all that. And then I think there's another category which is, you know, the party. Democrats need some introspection on what went wrong, maybe in the most tactical sense in the campaign, but probably In a broader sense of, you know, how has the message not resonated? Why are the policies not working within the party and you know, what the party needs to do going forward?

[Stephen Overlea]

Well, let me, I want to talk about both of those. Let's just quickly start with that 10%. Everyone is offering their opinions right now on where things went wrong for the Democrats. What is your take?

[Aaron Levy]

I mean, you know, I'm a voice of one, but I think even talking to Democrat leaning, you know, friends, you know, in and outside the valley and beyond, I think in general the view is that there's not enough emphasis on, in terms of policy and execution on just reasonable, pragmatic things that I think most people would want from their government. You know, how do we have safe cities? How do we have more housing? How do we have better, more effective, higher quality education? How do we allow for an environment of more innovation and acceleration and abundance in a lot of ways? And that, that hasn't really been the set of topics that are coming out of the Democratic Party over the past, you know, maybe, maybe five plus years, maybe 10 years. And I think it's, it's unfortunate because I'm a believer that you can kind of have, you know, a pro business, pro innovation, pro high growth set of policies that also protect and create the right level of social safety net for those that are impacted or don't have that ability to participate. I think you can have both of those things, but you do have to have decisive leadership. You do have to be able to make kind of trade offs and be clear about what those trade offs are, but execute on them. And I think this election was a referendum on that, has not been happening at the lowest and the highest levels of the party for a number of years, unfortunately.

[Stephen Overlea]

Got it. Well, so there are areas, like you said, where see potential to work with the Trump administration. You mentioned deregulation as one of those. And you know, obviously Elon Musk is going to be co leading this new Department of Government Efficiency that really seems to be set up to kind of eliminate regulations or programs that this incoming administration deems to be wasteful. I saw you post that there is significant opportunity there. How so?

[Aaron Levy]

Yeah, so I don't obviously know the full charter of government efficiency. So I'll step back and just share my perspective on the opportunity. I'm guessing that I'm philosophically aligned with Elon on a number of the topics, but if you just step back and you say, you know, if we want to have the 21st century in America look like the Success we've had economically and the strength of our country that we know is possible and that we've seen in the 20th century, you know, on a relative basis to other countries, we should set up the country to be able to build more, do more, innovate more, move faster, accelerate into the future. And so then you want to kind of piece apart what are the areas of friction getting in the way. And sometimes it's regulation. I think if you want to build housing in San Francisco, it's regulation, it's zoning policies. If you want to build a data center somewhere in the US you have a major energy crisis that you have to go and contend with. And so we need more energy. I have friends in working in climate tech that, you know, you can imagine. This is a very kind of Democrat adjacent, you know, type of space of technology.

[Stephen Overlea]

Right.

[Aaron Levy]

That have been not able to build in blue states climate tech because of the overregulation and red tape that kind of exists for, for getting things done and building things. There's a lot of sort of suffocation of innovation that's happening in the country. So I think a systemic, you know, solution to that would be how do you get rid of wasteful regulation and overhead in the government? And this could be a very high impact area to drive faster innovation. It was something that I was championing on the Harris side. And so thus I'm fully in support of any solution that accomplishes this. And so again, you know, what Elon is focused on seems to be the best shot of making that happen right now.

[Stephen Overlea]

You know, there are Democrats who are worried and may push back if that deregulation, for instance, is seen as allowing projects to go through that may harm the environment. Right. Or pulling back protections for disadvantaged or minority populations. I mean, where is the line? Is that something that you worry about in sort of this drive for efficiency?

[Aaron Levy]

Yeah, so 100%. And. Well, let me say that I worry conceptually with overdoing it for sure. I'm not going to endorse any particular persons worry of that. I think that Elon has this thing he shared publicly about the review of the impact of rocket launches on specific species and populations and certain whales or sharks or whatnot. And the amount of review overhead that goes into that for being able to get to space. And I don't know all the specifics, so I'm not going to weigh in on a very specific opinion. But you can imagine how if you have layers and layers of every review, every paper, every piece of research, you need to be able to go and do, to get anything done, and the amount of bureaucracy, then that has to approve building anything. And so at some point you kind of have to say, well, what is the bigger priority that we're trying to solve? You know, do we want more housing? Do we want more innovation? Do we want more abundance of access to, you know, technology and healthcare? And if you do, then at some point you kind of have to just say, okay, these are strategic areas where we want to win in the 21st century. We have to win in these areas. Then you do have to decide that we're going to accelerate past all of the kind of collective, you know, areas of overhead. And you want to do it in an insanely thoughtful way. To your point, if you're impacting a very large population or even maybe a minority group in a way that's, you know, severe impact, then we have to be thoughtful about that and we have to make sure that we're being kind of protective of those issues. But there is a point where it can reach past the threshold of actually being productive. I think in a number of areas we have kind of gone past that point.

[Stephen Overlea]

Got it. I know. Kind of like DC Silicon Valley can sometimes feel like or seem like a small town. Do you know Elon Musk or have you had much interaction with him beyond X?

[Aaron Levy]

I do, yeah.

[Stephen Overlea]

Well, I'm curious. He's emerged, I think, coming out of this election as a bit of a partisan figure. There are people questioning business relationships that he has himself with the government, whether that's through SpaceX or Starlink. What's your perspective on whether he's the right guy for this job?

[Aaron Levy]

I think the incredible thing about Elon is when he has a vision for accomplishing something, he effectively finds a way to manifest it into reality. And I mean, again, sort of short of a scenario where the physics are just not possible. He's an unrelenting sort of force of nature in going and solving previously intractable problems. I mean, when you look at rocket launches, I just, I posted this thing on Exit a couple days ago about the cost of rocket launches over time. And it's basically a flat curve with a tiny bit of improvement over time up until the moment SpaceX gets created. So, you know, decades and decades, it costs the exact same to get to space. And then all of a sudden, overnight, it's precipitous drop. You know, there's a lot of people out there that say, well, what's the importance of space? Well, I mean, even if you don't get into, you Know, maybe Elon's biggest goal of, you know, civilization expanding into Mars. Just take the most practical near term, you know, capability of until you get the cost of space down, you don't get sort of Internet satellites to be ubiquitous and it just becomes unaffordable to do it otherwise. And so now ask yourself, like, should we have billions of people connected to the Internet in previously, you know, areas that just would not have had Internet access? Of course we should. So these are the things that we kind of hold back by not accelerating innovation. Take the example of AI. You know, there's a scenario where we don't have these kinds of AI breakthroughs on a regular basis because we over regulate AI. And then you have to ask yourself, well, should we not make it so every person or kid on the planet has instant access to a tutor that could make them able to learn anything they want? Of course we should. Of course everybody should have access to that information. So Elon has again this unstoppable ability to say, here's a problem, it's a massive problem. Everybody else that's attempted to go after this problem has not succeeded. Again, another example is EV cars. I remember for years and years people would talk about EV cars. There were lots of attempts, you know, you had hybrids, you had these things that would do battery replacements and, and he just said, no, we're going to have an awesome looking car. It's going to be, it's going to be fast, it's going to be consumer grade and it's just going to get better and better and the battery range is going to get better and better. And everybody doubted him and it worked out. And it's $1 trillion company now. And so, you know, I am going on faith that he wants to take that same approach to again, you know, some of these systemic issues with burdensome regulation and red tape in the country that I think would unlock an era of growth and innovation. Now, you know, we have to do this again in a, in a way that is sort of thoughtful and you know, see where there could be negative consequences. But I don't think there's a better person for this particular task, let's say, than Elon because of again, how I think resistant the government normally, you know, would be to this type of change. And so I want to be optimistic that this leads to high impact benefit.

[Stephen Overlea]

And is that something you would encourage then, especially Democrats who are candidly, I think skeptical, if not critical, to maybe take a beat and give him time, give him a chance. Is that your take?

[Aaron Levy]

I Think even Elon would probably agree with this. I don't know if this is, I don't know if he would. But this idea that we kind of politicized innovation I think is a huge problem. And I think for some set of reasons, maybe it was unions, maybe just the sheer personality of Elon over time, over the past X number of years, you know, between some factions of the Democrat Party, some of the kind of, you know, main, mainstay leadership, somehow they built up this animosity with Elon and I've never thought made any sense. It's not only a bad political strategy, you know, see this election, but it's just bad for the country. Like we should be celebrating the fact that we out of nowhere created a private sector industry for space, you know, exploration and rocket launching. Right? We should be celebrating the fact that we have, you know, the leading company that has delivered EVs and autonomy in America and not somewhere else. And so, you know, I think the Democrats built up this, you know, phantom, you know, challenge that sort of Elon kind of fit into. And it's never made any sense to me. I was championing like, hey, you know, the Harris campaign, let's go celebrate SpaceX. Why would we not talk about space? Why don't we promote that as, as a very positive thing for the, for the country. So you know, I think, and you know, my guess is Elon sort of use this as I'm going to just do it one way or another and I'll, I'll come along with anybody that wants to support it. And so, you know, certainly my message to Democrats would be absolutely, we should support anybody who is willing to make America be the leader in all of these industries, whether it's again, space, manufacturing, energy, AI, biotechnology. So I think we want to make sure that we're set up to be the country that leads in those areas. That's what's going to create more jobs. That's what's going to make the next generation of people that grow up in America insanely excited about what the future could look like. And I think we want to continue to support that.

[Stephen Overlea]

I remember in our last conversation talking about some of the political rifts that emerged in Silicon Valley during this election. Right. And you had the perspective then that it was sort of, you know, these are kitchen table conversations that have always happened and now they're just playing out, you know, in public view, even post election. You know, we've seen folks sort of celebrating, if not gloating, their win. We've seen some folks sulking. And I think that's to be expected, I guess. I wonder what it will take to get back to kind of a bipartisan place. Or do you think folks will go there naturally if they're just kind of pragmatic about the election result?

[Aaron Levy]

Yeah, I mean, anytime you look at something in the week after an election, it's going to be pretty complicated and dynamic on that. And again, there's this interesting X factor which is not X the company, but variable. But you have this interesting X factor which is the Democrats themselves have a little bit of internal self assessment to do. And so you're probably going to see, you're going to see probably as much division in that conversation as you would between Democrats and Republicans right now because the party itself is going to have to, is going through some stuff and trying to figure out how to come out the other end as what I hope a more centrist, more pragmatic party. But it's not a given. That's sort of what happened. So you've got that and then you've got the Democrat and Republican natural divide. But I think what brings people together are positive solutions to problems. And I think when we get into solutions, hopefully if there are solutions that, that are not overly ideological one way or another, then we can get behind them and come together to move them forward. That would be my hope. I would have said the same thing again if the, if the outcome were on the other side. I think it's, there's again, you know, we need to be moving forward as a country and but this is why I'm getting behind a number of the kind of pro growth decisions that we're seeing or initial decisions that we're seeing potentially from this administration.

[Stephen Overlea]

Well, listen, we'll have to check back in again to see how it all plays out. But Aaron, appreciate you being here on Politico Tech.

[Aaron Levy]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Stephen Overlea]

That's all for today's Politico Tech. If you enjoy Politico Tech, be sure to subscribe. And if there's someone in tech you want to hear from, send me a [e-mail] for more tech news, subscribe to our newsletters, Digital Future Daily and Morning Tech. Music in our show comes from the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. Our managing producer is Annie Reese. Our producer is Afraid Abdullah. And our editors are Steve Hoyser, Daniel Ocheslo and Louisa Savage. I'm Stephen Overlea. See you back here on Monday.