Why CEOs spurned Trump’s business councils, in their own words

PRESIDENT Donald Trump disbanded his two business advisory councils Wednesday as chief executive officers staged an exodus to protest his response to a white-supremacist rally that turned violent.

The latest departures began Aug. 14, when Merck & Co. CEO Kenneth Frazier left a manufacturing-jobs group, saying he was taking “a stand against intolerance and extremism.” Trump attacked him on Twitter, and as other CEOs departed, the president labeled them “grandstanders.”

By Aug. 16, with other corporate bosses heading for the exits, Trump dissolved the manufacturing group headed by Dow Chemical Co.’s Andrew Liveris and a strategy and policy forum headed by Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwarzman. Here’s a look at how the CEOs responded, starting with the exit of Uber Technologies, Inc.’s chief over immigration policy and the June departure of billionaire Elon Musk, who left in protest of Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.

Feb. 2: Uber’s Travis Kalanick quit the strategy forum before the first meeting. “Immigration and openness to refugees is an important part of our country’s success and quite honestly to Uber’s,” he said in an e-mail to employees. “The executive order is hurting many people in communities all across America.”

June 1: Tesla, Inc.’s Musk was in the manufacturing and strategy groups and quit both. “Climate change is real,” he tweeted. “Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.” —