President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday hit back at the executives who have stepped down from his advisory council. Speaking at Trump Tower in New York after announcing an infrastructure initiative, Trump said the executives were “not taking their jobs seriously” and suggested they had stepped down from his manufacturing advisory council because they were making products overseas.
“They’re leaving out of embarrassment, because they make their products outside,” Trump said.
Trump’s remarks came amid a growing rift between the White House and the business community that has emerged since the weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and criticism of Trump’s response to it. Six members in two days have stepped down from the president’s Manufacturing Jobs Initiative.
One of them, Scott Paul, the president of the American Alliance for Manufacturing, a nonprofit group, said on Twitter on Tuesday morning that he was quitting the White House effort “because it’s the right thing for me to do.”
After Trump’s fiery news conference, two more participants resigned: Richard L. Trumka, the president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and Thea Lee, until recently the labor group’s deputy chief of staff.
“I cannot sit on a council for a President that tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism,” Trumka wrote on Twitter. “I resign, effective immediately.”
On Monday evening Douglas McMillon, the chief executive of Walmart, sent a letter to employees that was critical of the president.
“As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists,” said McMillon, who is remaining on a different advisory panel. “His remarks today were a step in the right direction and we need that clarity and consistency in the future.”
At Trump Tower, Trump responded to McMillon’s statement.
“The head of Walmart—who I know, he is a very nice guy—was making a political statement,” Trump said.
When asked about Merck, the drugmaker whose chief executive, Kenneth C. Frazier, was the first to step down on Monday, Trump said he had been pressuring executives to return jobs to the United States.
“I’ve been lecturing them, including the gentleman that you’re referring to, about you have to bring it back to this country,” he said.
Trump took office boasting of his business bona fides. The first billionaire chief executive to reside in the White House, he promised to bring boardroom deal-making to Washington and surrounded himself with presidential advisory councils stacked with big name CEOs.
But as controversy continues to swirl around the White House, the dozens of executives who agreed to serve on the president’s advisory groups are increasingly finding themselves at the center of unwanted debates.
“This should be his strong suit: courting CEOs,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “Instead, Trump finds himself with CEOs not wanting to be in a photo op with the president. What should have been an honor has become an albatross.”
Dozens of executives remain on the various councils, including the leaders of Boeing, Amazon and Oracle. And since taking office, Trump has met with hundreds of business leaders.
Image credits: Doug Mills/The New York Times