US President Donald Trump announced to disband two high-profile business advisory councils on Wednesday after several chief executives quit in protest over his remarks blaming weekend violence in Virginia not only on white nationalists but also on anti-racism activists who opposed them.
Trump announced the dissolution of the American Manufacturing Council and Strategic and Policy Forum, whose members included some leading American business figures, after eight executives including Campbell Soup Co CEO Denise Morrison and 3M Co CEO Inge Thulin quit the panels.
Screenshot from Twitter
Both of the councils were moving to disband on their own when Trump made his announcement on Twitter.
Trump said on Twitter, "Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both."
A memorial service was held on Wednesday in Charlottesville for 32-year-old Heather Heyer, killed when a car plowed into the anti-racism protesters. The driver, a 20-year-old Ohio man said to have harbored Nazi sympathies has been charged with murder.
Car attack victim Heather Heyer's coworker Alfred Wilson speaks about her during a memorial service for her at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, Virginia, US, August 16, 2017. /Reuters Photo
The Strategic and Policy Forum was intended to advise Trump on how government policy impacts economic growth, job creation and productivity. The manufacturing council was designed to promote US job growth.
Increasingly isolated
Two of President Trump's predecessors -- George Bush and his son George W. Bush -- issued a statement urging Americans to "reject racial bigotry... in all its forms."
Former president Barack Obama, Trump's immediate predecessor, caught the public mood better when he reacted by tweeting a quote from later South African leader Nelson Mandela: "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion." The tweet is now the most "liked" ever sent on the social network, Twitter said.
Few public figures have voiced support for Trump over his response to the violence, While Vice President Mike Pence, who is cutting short a trip to Latin America, told reporters in Chile that "I stand with the president and I stand by those words."
Protesters gather near Trump Tower to protest against attacks on immigrants under policies of US President Donald Trump, August 15, 2017 in New York. / AFP Photo
A parade of prominent Republicans and US ally Britain also rebuked Trump after his comments on Tuesday about the bloodshed in the college town of Charlottesville further enveloped his seven-month-old presidency in controversy, paralyzed his policy aims and left him increasingly isolated.
The president needs the support of fellow Republicans as he tries to push his policy agenda, including tax cuts, through a Congress that is controlled by the Republicans.
Wall Street analysts warned that Trump's remarks about weekend riot in Virginia were hurting Republicans' prospects fo progress on domestic policy.
In the meantime, the US House Homeland Security Committee said that it will hold a hearing next month about threats from extremist groups, including domestic terrorism, following a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville over last weekend.
