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 executives 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. Earlier Wednesday, 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 dispute over the panels began on Monday, when Merck & Co.’s Kenneth Frazier took a public stand against Trump, saying that quitting the manufacturing council was “matter of personal conscience” and said that U.S. leaders had to reject “hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.”
On Tuesday, Trump held a press conference where he doubled down on an earlier statement that both white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville to protest the removal a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and counter-demonstrators were at fault for the mayhem. Trump said he saw “blame on both sides.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.