Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said it’s “sad” that U.S. business leaders who left White House advisory panels over one issue lost their chance to shape policy -- especially given that many of them like Tesla’s Elon Musk weren’t Trump supporters in the first place.

Musk quit his advisory roles to the president on the same day President Donald Trump left the Paris climate change agreement in June. Several more company executives resigned from advisory panels over Trump’s tepid response to violence at a white nationalist rally last month in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump later dissolved the councils.

“Remember, most of these people in the business community included on those councils didn’t vote for the president to begin with. They were mostly supporters of the other candidate,” Ross said at a Washington Post event Friday. “I think what’s sad is for business leaders to give up an opportunity to influence policy over some singular issue with which they disagree. I don’t think that’s very well considered.” By example: “Elon Musk is not exactly a right-wing person” while doing a good job at Tesla, Ross said.

All told, morale in the business community is “really good,” he said.