President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday morning in a tweet against three CEOS who left his manufacturing council over his initial failure to condemn white supremacists in the wake of this weekend’s deadly attack in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Trump boasted that those who leave the White House council would be easily replaced, and suggested that the CEOs who quit in protest of his attempt to avoid condemning white supremacists and neo-Nazis were simply grandstanding.
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
Three CEOs had announced they would leave the council by the time Trump published his tweet. About 15 minutes afterward, a fourth CEO, Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, announced he would leave the council, too.
I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do.
— Scott Paul (@ScottPaulAAM) August 15, 2017
Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of Merck, was the first to resign from the council in reaction to Trump’s initial comments on the car attack that left one anti-racist protester dead and 19 others injured. In a Monday morning statement, Frazier said that American leaders must “expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.” Trump then quickly attacked Frazier in a tweet, calling out Merck for high drug prices.
Later Monday, the CEOs of Under Armour and Intel announced they would also leave the council.
