In the aftermath of is atrocious comments where he failed to demonize White Supremacist and Neo-Nazi groups – once again – Donald Trump disbanded two business councils, the Manufacturing Council and Strategy & Policy Forum amid several CEO’s leaving in protest.
However instead of admitting he just steered the Titanic into the iceberg causing these CEO’s to find any metaphorical lifeboat available, Trump instead took to Twitter saying he would disband the two groups in order to avoid “putting pressure” on the business people.
What a stand up guy!
Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017
According to the New York Times, the ball for the mass exodus of CEO’s began late Wednesday morning when close Trump confidant and Blackstone Group CE Stephen A. Schwarzman led a conference call among other executives – part of the Strategy and Policy Council – and attempted to devise a plan going forward. However instead of working on a strategy for the group to remain in tact, the executives instead decided to leave the group altogether.
And in addition to this conference call, members of Trump’s Manufacturing Council were expected to hold a similar meeting among the members before No. 45 decided pull the plug and save what little face (if any) he still had.
Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup and Inge Thulin of 3M announced Wednesday morning they decided to leave the Manufacturing Council. This came after Merck CEO Ken Frazier announced earlier in the week he would also leave the group amid Trump’s weak response to the actions of White Supremacists in Charllottesville, Virginia over the weekend. Soon after the CEO’s of Under Amour and Intel would join Frazier in his decision to leave.
In any sense, Trump’s failure to properly decry hate groups like the KKK was the last straw for these CEO’s who already had a growing discord with the President. In a setting of advisement, Trump essentially gave the big middle finger to these same business executives when he decided to pull out of the Paris Climate deal while also taking a hardline and elitist stance against immigration.
