Trump freaks out as even more business leaders to quit President’s advisory council
by The Associated Press
Five chief executives have resigned from the White House manufacturing council in protest of the president's failure to immediately condemn white supremacists and other hate groups after deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump says CEOs who have quit his White House council are “leaving out of embarrassment.”
He is also saying they are “not taking their jobs seriously” as he takes questions from reporters at Trump Tower in New York City, where he is spending a few days during a break from Washington.
The latest tirade came after the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing have resigned from the informal panel.
Alliance president Scott Paul, in a tweet, said simply, “I’m resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it’s the right thing for me to do.”
But then Trump walked-back his comments about the white supremacists and again blamed the “alt-left” for causing the violence.
And that was enough for AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. After quitting the council, the union leader said he cannot sit on a council “…for a president who tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism. President Trump’s remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis.”
Trump then falsely claimed the departures were due to some of those companies making products overseas.
Five chief executives have resigned from the White House manufacturing council in protest of the president’s failure to immediately condemn white supremacists and other hate groups after deadly violence last weekend in Charlottesville, Va.
The parade of departing leaders from the informal panel now includes the chief executives for Merck, Under Armour and Intel and the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.
Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon criticized President Donald Trump’s initial response to violence in Charlottesville.
But McMillon appears willing to stay on a panel of informal corporate advisers for the president.
He says in a note to Wal-Mart employees that “(We) too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists.”
But McMillion says the president’s later condemnation of racism was a “step in the right direction.”
