News / Politics

Trump ends two business councils after CEO resignations

Wednesday, 16 August 2017 6:08 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 16 August 2017 6:33 PM ]

US President Donald Trump with business leaders at a Strategic and Policy Forum meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on Feb. 3, 2017. (Getty Images)

US President Donald Trump says he will dismantle two business advisory councils after several of its members resigned in protest over his comments about a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump made his announcement on Twitter, saying he is disbanding the American Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!" Trump tweeted.

The American Manufacturing Council was a group of prominent chief executives set up to advise Trump about US manufacturing. The Strategic and Policy Forum was a business forum created to give Trump perspectives on how to create jobs and increase economic growth.

The CEOs of Merck, Intel and Under Armour were among those who quit the forums following Trump's comments about Saturday's violence in Charlottesville.

Read More:

A suspected Nazi sympathizer, identified as 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr, plowed his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters, leaving one woman dead and 19 others wounded.

Trump has come under increasing pressure over his stance on the violence, with many members of his own Republican party and US business executives distancing themselves from him.

On Tuesday Trump provoked further controversy when he said that those who had been protesting against the right-wing groups were partly responsible for the violence. His comments came a day after he bowed to overwhelming pressure to explicitly condemn the white supremacist groups.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk