Campbell Soup, 3M CEOs resign from WH manufacturing council
Two more CEOs announced their resignations from President Donald Trump’s manufacturing council on Wednesday, in reaction to the president’s response to white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.
Inge Thulin, the chief executive at 3M, said in a statement on Wednesday that he believes the policies of his company no longer align with those of the White House initiative.
— 3M (@3M) August 16, 2017
Shortly after, Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) CEO Denise Morrison announced she would no longer participate on the council, pointedly disagreeing with Trump’s response on Tuesday to the protests.
“I believe the President should have been – and still needs to be – unambiguous on that point,” she said in a statement. “Following yesterday’s remarks from the President, I cannot remain on the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative. I will continue to support all efforts to spur economic growth and advocate for the values that have always made America great.”
Thulin and Morrison join a host of other business leaders who resigned from the council already this week. Those individuals include Merck (NYSE:MRK) CEO Kenneth Frazier, Under Armour (NYSE:UAA) CEO Kevin Plank, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) executive Brian Krzanich, Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul and the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka and Thea Lee.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump went on the offensive against the executives who left the council, saying they were not taking their duties seriously as it “pertains to this country.”
“If you look at some of those people that you’re talking about … they’re having a lot of their product made outside [of the country],” Trump said during a press conference at Trump Tower. “Now I have to tell you, some of the folks that will leave, they’re leaving out of embarrassment because they make their products outside [the U.S.].”
Trump also called the same CEOs “grandstanders” in a tweet earlier Tuesday.
Some of the executives who have committed to staying on the council include Dow Chemical’s (NYSE:DOW) Andrew Liveris, Whirlpool’s (NYSE:WHR) Jeff Fettig and General Electric’s (NYSE:GE) Jeff Immelt.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum decided to completely disband, according to multiple reports Wednesday.