Trump CEO strategy teams disband after exodus D

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Trump CEO strategy teams disband after exodus

Donald J. Trump
✔ ‎@realDonaldTrump

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

Weak, very, very, weak. LOL!




His remarks were a reversal of what he said a day before, when he tweeted that he had plenty of CEOs who wanted to be on the panels to replace those who quit, and called the CEOs who left "grandstanders."

The executive council, which is led by Blackstone Group LP's Stephen Schwarzman, planned to inform the White House Wednesday before making the announcement public, according to a person familiar with the matter, who wasn't authorized to discuss the news publicly.

The strategy group is one of several the White House convened earlier this year to advise the president. Several CEOs from a manufacturing council quit this week, following blowback over Trump's remarks about racially charged violence in Virginia on Saturday.

Pressure to leave the groups has built following a press conference Trump held in New York Tuesday where he placed partial blame for the weekend violence on demonstrators protesting a gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia. A woman was killed during the event after a man rammed a car into a crowd.

While more than half a dozen CEOs have quit a manufacturing CEO group, others have said they wanted to stay on the panels in order to influence White House policy.

The manufacturing council hasn't met since February. The CEOs of Under Armour, Intel, Merck quit earlier this week. And on Wednesday, Inge Thulin, CEO of 3M left, as did Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison.

"Following yesterday's remarks from the president, I cannot remain on the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative," Morrison said in a statement. "I will continue to support all efforts to spur economic growth and advocate for the values that have always made America great."

The strategy forum included James McNerney, the former CEO of Chicago's Boeing Co. Dennis Muilenburg, the aerospace giant's current CEO, sat on the manufacturing council, along with Doug Oberhelman, the former CEO of Caterpillar.

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