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| Donald Trump disbands key business councils after CEOs quit over Charlottesville response | Donald Trump disbands key business councils after CEOs quit over Charlottesville response |
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| Donald Trump has disbanded two key business advisory councils after CEOs quit them over his response to the Charlottesville protests. | Donald Trump has disbanded two key business advisory councils after CEOs quit them over his response to the Charlottesville protests. |
| "Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter. "Thank you all!" | "Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter. "Thank you all!" |
| Before that announcement was made, the councils were haemorrhaging CEOs. Earlier in the day, the CEO of Campbell Soup Co Denise Morrison had distanced her company from the White House, following less than an hour after 3M Chief Executive Inge Thulin announced she was ditching Mr Trump. Those two followed in the footsteps of the CEOs of Merck, Under Armour, and Intel. Two leaders from the AFL-CIO and the president of a manufacturing industry group were also among those to leave the councils. | Before that announcement was made, the councils were haemorrhaging CEOs. Earlier in the day, the CEO of Campbell Soup Co Denise Morrison had distanced her company from the White House, following less than an hour after 3M Chief Executive Inge Thulin announced she was ditching Mr Trump. Those two followed in the footsteps of the CEOs of Merck, Under Armour, and Intel. Two leaders from the AFL-CIO and the president of a manufacturing industry group were also among those to leave the councils. |
| "Racism and murder are unequivocally reprehensible and are not morally equivalent to anything else that happened in Charlottesville," Ms Morrison said upon her departure from the council. "I believe the President should have been - and still needs to be - unambiguous on that point." | "Racism and murder are unequivocally reprehensible and are not morally equivalent to anything else that happened in Charlottesville," Ms Morrison said upon her departure from the council. "I believe the President should have been - and still needs to be - unambiguous on that point." |
| The resignations from the council came after Mr Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who conducted a violent rally in Charlottesville over the weekend, culminating in the death of a counter protester when a car suspected of being controlled by a white supremacist smashed through a crowd. There were 19 others who were injured by the vehicle. | |
| It took Mr Trump days to respond to the attack, and was criticised for not speaking up sooner against the white supremacists who had come to Virginia, and had chanted hateful messages targeting Jews and other minority groups. | |
| "I think there's blame on both sides," Mr Trump said in a press conference in which he went off script to talk about the reaction to the statement he eventually made. "What about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right. Do they have any semblance of guilt?" | |
| Reporters were quick to note that "alt-left" isn't a thing. | |
| Just a day before disbanding his council, Mr Trump appeared defiant of the resignations he was receiving. | |
| "For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing COuncil, I have many to take their place," he tweeted. "Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!" | |
| Mr Trump set up the advisory council in January to much fanfare, toting his career as a successful businessman before running for president as one of his prime qualifications to run the country. Mr Trump promised then that he would seek out the advice of business leaders in the pursuit of a stronger economy that creates jobs and boosts America's wealth. | |
| But the council began seeing troubles fairly quickly, when the high-profile tech entrepreneur Elon Musk resigned from the advisory board in protest of Mr Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord. Mr Musk is the CEO and founder of companies including Tesla and SpaceX. | |
| "Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world," Mr Musk tweeted at the time. | |
| Still, the President contends that things have been pretty good for business since he took over the Oval Office. He regularly notes that the stock market has repeatedly hit all-time highs under his oversight, and complains that the news media doesn't cover that fact. Meanwhile, observers note that the stock market has hit all-time highs in 30 of the last 54 months. |