President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he is dissolving his Manufacturing Council and Strategy & Policy Forum, after business leaders resigned en masse from the council to protest Trump’s failure to take a hard stance against white supremacist groups.
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
After Trump said over the weekend that “many sides” were responsible for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and lashed out at reporters on Tuesday afternoon while defending his comments, business leaders began announcing their resignations in quick succession. Kenneth Frazier of Merck, Kevin Plank of Under Armour, and Brian Krzanich of Intel resigned on Monday; Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Richard Trumka of AFL-CIO, and Thea Lee, also of the AFL-CIO, all followed on Tuesday.
Trump initially denounced the “grandstanders” on Twitter, claiming he had “many” CEOs to take their place.
For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2017
But Wednesday morning, members of the Strategy & Policy Forum decided to disband the group, the New York Times reports. Trump then disbanded the council entirely.
Trump’s infrastructure council is still in place, though the Trump administration is facing a lawsuit for transparency issues related to the group’s operations.
