|
Musicmystery -> RE: Republicans slowly realize Trump may be worst president ever (8/16/2017 6:21:11 AM)
|
Six more business leaders stepped down from presidential advisory councils citing values as the primary motivation for distancing themselves from Trump.
The chief executive of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, criticized President Trump in front of his 1.5 million American employees, widening a rift between the White House and the business community that has been growing since the weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Va.
“As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists,” Douglas McMillon, the Walmart C.E.O., wrote in a letter to employees late Monday.
The rebuke from Mr. McMillon came as six other business leaders stepped down from presidential advisory councils — including two late on Monday, the C.E.O.s of Intel and Under Armour — citing their own values as the primary motivation for distancing themselves from Mr. Trump.
The president hit back at his critics in the business world during a news conference at Trump Tower Tuesday. He spent several minutes lashing out at some of the most prominent executives in the country, saying that those who left his councils were “not taking their jobs seriously” and were “leaving out of embarrassment.”
The departures represent a rare spectacle in which prominent executives are looking for ways to pull back from an American president who campaigned, and won, partly on the strength of his pro-business stance. This has created an unusual calculus: Whether or not to stay on as advisers to a president, a role that traditionally is a coveted position with little to no attendant risk.
The exodus began Monday, when Merck’s chief executive said he was resigning from Mr. Trump’s manufacturing council, citing the president’s tepid early statement on the violence in Charlottesville, where white nationalists staged a weekend march that turned violent. On Tuesday, the leaders of a labor group and a nonprofit business alliance resigned from the same panel. Mr. McMillon of Walmart has chosen to remain on the president’s economic advisory council, despite his criticisms.
Having come into office boasting of his business bona fides, Mr. Trump was quick to forge ties with the corporate world. Central to these efforts was the formation of the business advisory groups made up of executives who would help shape policy discussions.
Dozens of prominent business leaders joined the panels, and in the first weeks of Mr. Trump’s presidency, numerous meetings were held at the White House. Yet the early momentum dissipated and few meetings of the advisory groups have been held since.
For the chief executive of Intel, who stepped down from the manufacturing council on Monday, the journey from engagement with the new president to a public breakup played out over the course of months.
Brian Krzanich, the Intel chief, was curious about the Trump movement and, during the campaign, planned to hold a fund-raiser for Mr. Trump at his home to hear his views — only to cancel it after an outcry in Silicon Valley. Nevertheless, when Intel decided to expand a plant in Arizona in February, Mr. Krzanich called Mr. Trump and joined the president to announce it at the White House, even though the long-planned project was initially announced with President Obama.
Yet Mr. Krzanich has publicly disagreed with Mr. Trump on key issues, like the president’s proposed immigration ban in January and the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords.
The president’s response to the weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Va., was the final straw. In a thinly veiled reference to Mr. Trump, Mr. Krzanich wrote that he was disturbed by people in Washington who “seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them.” In a nod to the protesters who challenged the white supremacists as well as to Kenneth C. Frazier, the chief executive of Merck, who quit the council early on Monday in protest of Mr. Trump’s actions, Mr. Krzanich added, “We should honor – not attack – those who have stood up for equality and other cherished American values.”
After deliberating over the weekend and on Monday with senior executives and other advisers, Mr. Krzanich notified the council of his decision in writing on Monday night and published a blog post explaining it.
The willingness of Mr. Krzanich and other C.E.O.s to walk away from the advisory panels highlights an uncomfortable reality for Mr. Trump: He billed himself as the businessman-president, but some executives no longer want to work with him.
“This should be his strong suit: courting C.E.O.s,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “Instead, Trump finds himself with C.E.O.s not wanting to be in a photo op with the president. What should have been an honor has become an albatross.”
On Monday, Mr. Frazier of Merck, Kevin Plank of Under Armour and Mr. Krzanich of Intel stepped down from the manufacturing council. And Tuesday morning, Scott Paul, the president of the American Alliance for Manufacturing, a nonprofit group, said on Twitter that he, too, was stepping down from the manufacturing council “because it’s the right thing for me to do.”
After Mr. Trump on Tuesday equivocated in his criticism of far-right hate groups, Richard Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and Thea Lee, the deputy chief of staff, also stepped down.
“We cannot sit on a council for a president who tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism,” Mr. Trumka said. “President Trump’s remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis. We must resign on behalf of America’s working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups.”
“The risk calculus has changed dramatically,” said Scott Galloway, a professor at New York University Business School, who sits on several corporate boards. “Yes, you may risk a tweet from Trump. But his tweets are increasingly flaccid.”
More: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/business/trump-councils-ceos.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
|
|
|
|
