Trump faces business backlash

charlottesville — US President Donald Trump, facing a mounting political furore and backlash from business leaders, has explicitly condemned neoNazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists two days after a rally by hate groups in Virginia turned deadly.

The Republican president’s specific denunciation of extreme right-wing organisations, whose followers constitute a devoted segment of his political base, came on Monday after a torrent of criticism from Democrats and members of his own party.

“Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” Trump said in a statement at the White House on Monday.

By the time he sought to revise his message, however, the most pointed rebukes were coming not just from politicians, pundits and civil rights activists, but also from the captains of American industry.

In quick succession, three members of Trump’s advisory American Manufacturing Council quit in protest, led by the chief executive of one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, Kenneth Frazier of Merck & Co.

The CEOs of sportswear manufacturer Under Armour, semiconductor chip maker Intel, Kevin Plank and Brian Krzanich, announced their resignations from the panel hours later.

Trump quickly struck back on Twitter at Frazier, who is black, saying the Merck executive would now have more time to focus on lowering “ripoff ” drug prices. — Reuters