Elon Musk of Tesla and Walt Disney’s Bob Iger have quit. Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric and JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon have dissented.

President Donald Trump’s business brain trust -- originally these executives, plus some 50 other chief executive officers chosen to help shape White House policy -- has so far come up short on big ideas.

In fact, there’s been little activity for the strategy and policy forum and the manufacturing group, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. After initial meetings early in Trump’s presidency -- which the White House promoted with great fanfare -- his administration hasn’t convened the groups for months or set firm dates for future meetings, according to the people.

As turmoil has engulfed Washington, some prominent business leaders, including several of these informal advisers, have begun to distance themselves from the president. Tesla Inc. CEO Musk and Walt Disney Co. CEO Iger went even further, quitting in June after Trump withdrew from the Paris climate accord. Former Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Travis Kalanick quit in February, following Trump’s controversial executive order on immigration.

CEO President

It’s a remarkable turnabout for the first CEO president, who pitched himself during the campaign as a savvy dealmaker who’d cut taxes and reduce regulations to unleash U.S. companies.

After vowing to impose business discipline on Washington and surrounding himself with executives, he’s presided over a chaotic administration that’s struggled to deliver business-like results. He has been pushing to cut corporate tax rates -- an issue dear to CEOs -- but the effort is log-jammed behind the Obamacare battle and multiple investigations of Russia’s interference in the election, including possible ties to Trump’s team.

The manufacturing group spearheaded by Dow Chemical Co. CEO Andrew Liveris hasn’t met in five months. Ford Motor Co. CEO Mark Fields was ousted by the automaker’s board in May and hasn’t been replaced. And the strategy and policy forum, led by Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, last convened on April 11, despite the president saying he’d like it to get together monthly.

“The purpose of this group isn’t for general discussion, which is okay,” Schwarzman said at the first meeting Feb. 3. “But the real purpose is to get things done, to advise the government as to areas where we can do things a lot better as a country, for all Americans, and de-bottleneck some things.”

Scheduling Problem

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