Harrell Calls Musk, Thiel ‘smart Innovators,’ Tells Downtown Businesses He’s Fighting For Them

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell went off script for part of his speech to the Downtown Seattle Association’s (DSA) “State of Downtown” gathering Tuesday at the Washington State Convention Center. Harrell praised a group of tech billionaires that donated hundreds of millions to elect Donald Trump as “some of the smartest innovators around.” The mayor also criticized federal layoffs that could weaken cybersecurity and risk losing data and technology to China, but off-the-cuff remark about “smart innovator” billionaires was a little hard to follow, since the criticism was so oblique.

“The lists of vulnerabilities that particularly AI presents are pretty significant,” Harrell said Tuesday. “We know that the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] is run by Brendan Carr, who did write the playbook for the FCC chapter in Project 2025 we know that our current president surrounds himself by some of the smartest innovators around. When we drop names like [Marc] Andreessen or Peter Thiel or David Sacks or Elon Musk, these are smart innovators. And when you look at the world of regulation, I am concerned about our cybersecurity issues, so I will assure to you as your mayor, as the only mayor that was put on the safety and security board for artificial intelligence, when I look at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or just one sec here.”

Harrell consulted his notes at this point.

The mayor had just spent his annual “State of the City” speech ramping up rhetoric against Trump and pledging to stand up to an increasingly authoritarian regime to protect civil rights. The smart innovator comments seemed a shift in tone, returning to a more conciliatory tone he had used in November, when he told tech leaders he would try to collaborate with Trump. “I’m not going to D.C. with my fist balled,” Harrell said, per Geekwire.

The four tech billionaires mentioned are part of Trump’s inner circle, with Tesla mogul Musk in particular playing a large role despite no official cabinet appointment — the U.S. Constitution dictates that a president must appoint someone to their cabinet, which requires a congressional approval in most cases, for that person to act on the president’s behalf. Musk hasn’t done that, but appears to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and act as a sort of shadow president, nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Andreesen co-founded Netscape, Thiel founded Palantir, and Sacks co-founded Paypal before getting into cryptocurrency. Sacks appears to be trying to prop up the volatile crypto-industry (rife with corruption and scams) as Trump’s “crypto czar.” Thiel was one of the first tech moguls to back Trump and pump millions in to his campaign.

“Obviously I’m off script,” Harrell said Tuesday.” “I get emotional when I start thinking about the National Institute of Standards and Technology. You are seeing massive layoffs. You’re seeing, I think last week, 130 people in these critical decisions laid off — that we have to concern ourselves with our protection. So as the chair of the Technology and Innovation Committee for the US Conference of Mayors, I will fight for you. That many of our largest employers are in this space. It affects us all.”

Harrell mentions his cybersecurity work and complimented "leading tech innovators" like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, conservative billionaires who helped elect Donald Trump.

— The Urbanist (@theurbanist.org) February 25, 2025 at 4:26 PM

The admiration was mutual, apparently, as DSA President Jon Scholes and other speakers heaped praise on Harrell for reinvigorating downtown. In fact, the DSA head crediting the mayor with averting a doom loop and instead creating a “bloom loop.”

“Thank you to Mayor Harrell for his convicted leadership, his commitment to the revitalization of our downtown, for his partnership,” Scholes said. “We’re on a path to progress thanks to his leadership and his action, along with that of the city council as well.”

The mutual backslapping was a sign that the business community will once again rally around Harrell in his election campaign this fall as he seeks to become the first two-term mayor in Seattle since Greg Nickels. But being seen as soft on the Trump administration could also be a weakness in Seattle, where Trump was overwhelmingly rejected in the 2024 election and remains incredibly unpopular.

Harrell says he wants to stop Musk and friends

The mayor’s spokesperson Jamie Housen said Harrell was actually criticizing Musk and company in his speech, and warning of the danger of Trump giving these innovators the keys to the federal government and the potential to preempt local internet and artificial intelligence (AI) regulations — such as they are.

“The mayor was referencing that these individuals have an objective reputation as leaders in technology and innovation, and that it is a danger they are in the president’s orbit,” Housen said. “He certainly doesn’t agree with their politics, which is why he highlighted this through concerns around the actions coming out of DC like significant staffing cuts impacting cybersecurity and the degradation of protections and questions over access to personal data.”

The mayor is the chair of the United States Conference of Mayors Committee on Technology and Innovation, a group which Housen said “led efforts to organize mayors in opposition to H.R. 3557 [American Broadband Deployment Act of 2023], and will continue to work with mayors across the country to oppose similar corporate legislative efforts, including those that would preempt local governments around broadband and prevent needed protections around AI.”

The mayor’s spokesperson also emphasized the benefits to regular citizens of these measures more than Harrell did in his speech to downtown business leaders.

“As he mentioned, Mayor Harrell was the only mayor — and one of only two elected officials — on President Biden’s Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board, and while he feels there are strong opportunities in the AI sphere, he is also worried about significant risks and that the Trump Administration is not taking them seriously,” Housen added. “Again, his point was that he is committed to protecting Seattle residents’ personal data and to advancing innovation in AI at the same time we support smart regulations and strong guardrails to protect cybersecurity and safeguard critical infrastructure.”

Ferguson pitches his austerity efforts to business leaders

Ferguson also reiterated his cuts-first approach to the state's looming budget deficit. Said his team would soon be rolling out multiple billion $ in cuts and efficiencies. Background here: www.theurbanist.org/2025/01/15/f…

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— The Urbanist (@theurbanist.org) February 25, 2025 at 5:27 PM

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson also made a rare public appearance at the Downtown Seattle Association event. Ferguson pledged to announce billion of dollars in proposed cuts later in the week in order to close the state’s budget shortfall without first resorting to raising taxes. The state’s projected budget shortfall is $15 billion over Ferguson four-year term. Democratic leaders in the state legislature, meanwhile, have emphasized raising new revenue, primarily by taxing the rich, in order to avoid deep cuts.

Ferguson announced the pledged cuts today, amounting to nearly $4 billion in purported savings. One big area where Ferguson proposes finding major savings is requiring most state employees to “take one furlough day per month for the next two years,” which would save around $300 million he said. The proposal would exempt state troopers and staff working in our prisons and state hospitals, potentially among others. The full list of Ferguson’s current proposals is available here for the supplemental budget, and here for the 2025-27 biennium.

On Tuesday, Ferguson also touted his administration’s work to fill up new involuntary commitment mental health beds at the University of Washington. Both of the governor’s announcements were greeted with applause from the business leaders in attendance.

The post Harrell Calls Musk, Thiel ‘Smart Innovators,’ Tells Downtown Businesses He’s Fighting for Them first appeared on The Urbanist.