The fallout from President Trump’s response to the Charlottesville tragedy escalated Wednesday, resulting in him disbanded his manufacturing and business policy councils.
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.
Early Wednesday afternoon Trump tweeted “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!”
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!, ” Trump tweeted.
Despite the attack against Frazier and the drugmaker, his exit was followed soon by CEOs of Intel and Under Armour and representatives from labor union AFL-CIO.
Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison and 3M CEO Inge Thulin Wednesday joined the growing list of American 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 the rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend
After internal and external pressure, Trump relented and mentioned the hate groups, including neo-Nazis and KKK. But in a defiant return to form, Trump stood before reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower Tuesday afternoon and said counter-protesters were also 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.
As manufacturing sector chief executives began to jump ship, 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.”
The chief executives’ resignations may have business motives as well, said Bill Klepper, professor of management at Columbia Business School. “I think they’ re finding the cost of alignment with Trump is too high, ” he said. “They have a social contract to stakeholders (that says) here’s what we stand for. These are our core values. Here’s how we’ re going to contribute and win as a business in society. And we’ re going to do it through ethical principles.”
“And lots of things Trump has been doing or not doing come close to violating the social contract, ” Klepper said.
There have been questions about the councils’ effectiveness from the start, and some critics dismissed them merely as photo opportunities for a president whose central campaign was about restoring jobs.
In quitting his spot, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the manufacturing council has “yet to hold any real meeting” since it was formed.
“There are real questions into the effectiveness of this council to deliver real policy that lifts working families, ” he said.
Contributing: David Jackson.
