Trump disbands business councils after CEOs quit over Charlottesville remarks

August 17, 2017 08:40

United States President Donald Trump has disbanded his two business advisory councils after facing a string of resignations from the chief executives over his "ambiguous" response to violence by white supremacists in

Charlottesville.

Trump had established the Manufacturing Advisory Council in January after his swearing-in while the 16-member Strategic and Policy Forum was established in December when he was the president-elect.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!" Trump said in a tweet.

As many as 11 CEOs in the advisory councils have quit so far. A majority of them resigned after criticism mounted over the US president's less-than-encouraging response to the weekend violence in Charlottesville, where a car rammed into a crowd peacefully protesting against the rally by white supremacists, killing a 32-year-old woman.

News reports appeared that more CEOs were likely to leave his presidential councils, in an apparent protest against Trump's remarks that people on both sides were responsible for the violence in Charlottesville.

Eight CEOs -- including Merck's Kenneth Frazier, Intel's Brian Krzanich, Kevin Plank of Under Armour, and Richard Trumka, president of American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO) -- had quit from Trump's two advisory councils till yesterday.

Earlier in the day, members of the Strategic Policy Forum in a joint statement said that intolerance, racism and violence have absolutely no place in the country and are an affront to core American values.

Led by Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, members of the Strategic Policy Forum included JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.

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