TRUMP DUMPS BIZ PANELS AS CEOs FLEE
After one of his two business councils voted to disband Wednesday, President Trump tried to get ahead of the news by announcing that he was putting the kibosh on both of them.
“Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!” Trump tweeted.
But the president’s announcement came as it was reported that Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group, had arranged a conference call with members of Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum and they agreed to disband.
“As our members have expressed individually over the past several days, intolerance, racism and violence have absolutely no place in this country and are an affront to core American values,” forum members said in a statement.
An unidentified member of the group that included, among others, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and retired General Electric CEO Jack Welch said Trump’s Tuesday comments were a “tripwire.”
“There really was nothing to debate,” the member told CNBC.
Meanwhile, two more chief execs announced their resignations from the president’s manufacturing advisory council over his controversial comments blaming “both sides” for the deadly violence at last weekend’s white-nationalist rally in Virginia.
3M’s Inge Thulin and Campbell Soup’s Denise Morrison became the seventh and eighth members since Monday to step down.
Morrison’s departure signaled an about-face on her part.
On Monday, after Trump initially stayed on script to denounce the white-supremacist groups, she said she wanted to re- main on the council “to have a voice and provide input.”
But she said the president’s offthe-rails news conference at Trump Tower Tuesday left her no choice.
She said Trump should have been “unambiguous” in decrying the actions of hate groups at the rally where a woman was killed Saturday when a car plowed into counter-protesters.
Thulin also identified Trump’s wavering comments as the reason for his resignation.
Thulin joined the group in January “to advocate for policies that align with our values and encourage even stronger investment and job growth,” the CEO said Wednesday in a statement tweeted by 3M. “After careful consideration, I believe the initiative is no longer an effective vehicle for 3M to advance these goals.”
Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, one of the few African-Americans on the council, began the exodus on Monday, saying his exit was “a matter of personal conscience.” His departure was followed by the CEOs of Under Armour and Intel.
Trump initially shrugged at their departures and called them “grandstanders.”
“For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!” Trump tweeted Tuesday.