The White House on Friday brushed aside a question about the the fallout both President Donald Trump’s administration and personal business empire have seen in the wake of his failure to swiftly condemn white nationalists after the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
During a press briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked if the news that several charities had pulled their events from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, combined with criticism from his top economics adviser and an exodus of outside advisers from the business world, had made the President rethink his response to the violence in Charlottesville.
“I can’t speak to anything regarding the Trump Organization,” Sanders replied, adding that Trump “condemns this in the strongest form possible.”
More than 15 charities have said that they will no longer hold previously scheduled events at Mar-a-Lago, leaving Trump’s Palm Beach club with few big special events to host during the winter gala season in Florida. Trump has yet to weigh in on the nonprofits’ decision to ditch his venue.
One of the latest groups to pull an event from the Florida club, the Unicorn Children’s Foundation, said that it was relocating its event because the group does “not condone hatred or bullying on any level as our kids have dealt with the pain of being called different on a very personal level.”
