USA TODAY International Edition
TRUMP DISBANDS COUNCILS AS CEOS CONTINUE TO FLEE
Pushback over president’s comments on Charlottesville tragedy intensify
The fallout from Donald Trump’s response to a deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville escalated Wednesday as two CEO-dominated groups organized to help the president chart a course toward U.S. economic and job growth were disbanded.
“Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!” Trump tweeted early Wednesday afternoon.
But a dissolution led by the members of at least one of the panels appears to have already been in the works and was set to be announced. Trump used Twitter to beat the members to the punch.
Two administration officials said council members had spoken with White House officials in recent days, though they didn’t know if Trump himself got involved. The CEOs held a conference call to discuss their role with the White House.
The disbanding of the groups followed a cascade of departures from the manufacturing council, kicked off Monday by Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, who said he quit the manufacturing council as “a matter of personal conscience.”
Frazier’s resignation prompted an angry rebuke from Trump on Twitter: “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”
Despite the attack against Frazier and the drugmaker, his exit was followed by CEOs of Intel and Under Armour and a representative from labor union AFLCIO. Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison and 3M CEO Inge Thulin on Wednesday joined the growing list of U.S. chief executives who resigned from the council, an advisory group the White House formed this year.
Pressure from the business community had been intensifying following Trump’s widely criticized response to violence that erupted after a rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.
After internal and external pressure,
Trump relented and mentioned the hate groups, including neo-Nazis and the KKK. But in a defiant return to form, Trump stood before reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon and said counterprotesters also were to blame for the tragedy that left three dead and dozens hurt.
CEOs who initially chose to stick with the councils had cited the need to stay engaged with the White House to make meaningful changes. But the steady drumbeat for them to disassociate from Trump was unrelenting and inspired the Twitter hashtag #Quitthecouncil.
None of the CEOs on Trump’s economic council — the Strategic and Policy Forum — had quit as of Wednesday morning. But they also began to receive inquiries from activists and reporters about their intentions. And as resignations began to mount and the story refused to wane, the CEOs on the policy forum began contemplating its future.
“We believe the debate over forum participation has become a distraction from our well-intentioned and sincere desire to aid vital policy discussions on how to improve the lives of everyday Americans,” read the forum’s statement that was issued through private equity firm Blackstone, whose CEO Stephen Schwarzman chairs the group. “As such, the president and we are disbanding the forum.” There have been questions about the councils’ effectiveness, and some critics dismissed them merely as photo opportunities for a president whose central campaign was about restoring jobs.
“Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!” Tweet from President Trump