Eleven prominent CEOs and leaders have now resigned from President Donald Trump's manufacturing council. The departures this week prompted Trump to announce Wednesday that he had "disbanded" the group along with the Strategic and Policy Forum, another business advisory board.

Eight business executives, two labor leaders, and the head of a manufacturing business group said that they would step down from the American Manufacturing Council this week, following days of criticism over the president's failure to forcefully denounce the white supremacist groups that incited violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

The move by business leaders to abandon Trump is a significant blow to the president, who holds business executives in high esteem and has often boasted of his ability to work and negotiate with prominent CEOs.

A cascade of resignations on Wednesday followed a press conference a day earlier in which Trump defended white supremacists and neo-Nazis, saying the anti-racist demonstrators who had showed up in Charlottesville to counter them shared some of the blame for the violence.



In resigning from the President's American Manufacturing Council on Wednesday, Johnson and Johnson CEO Alex Gorksy cited Trump's remarks from Tuesday. "The President's most recent statements equating those who are motivated by race-based hate with those who stand up against hatred is unacceptable and has changed our decision to participate," Gorksy said in a statement.


GE Chairman Jeff Immelt resigned from the council on Wednesday morning, saying in a statement "The President’s statements yesterday were deeply troubling."

Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison also stepped down Wednesday, along with the CEO of 3M, Inge Thulin, and the CEO of United Technologies Greg Hayes.

"Racism and murder are unequivocally reprehensible and are not morally equivalent to anything else that happened in Charlottesville. I believe the President should have been – and still needs to be – unambiguous on that point," Morrison said in a statement.



Thulin said he had joined the council to "advocate for policies that align with our values and encourage even stronger investment and job growth. After careful consideration, I believe the initiative is no longer an effective vehicle for 3M to advance these goals."

Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier was the first to announce Monday morning that he was resigning from the president's council. "I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism," said Frazier, one of the country's most prominent African-American business leaders. At the time, Trump had not explicitly condemned Nazi and white supremacist groups.

Trump finally gave a statement to that effect, saying, "Racism is evil." But by late Monday night, two more business leaders had resigned. Kevin Plank, the CEO of Under Armour, said he was stepping down in a statement posted to Twitter Monday night, and he was was joined soon after by Intel's CEO, Brian Krzanich.

"Under Armour engages in innovation and sport, not politics," Plank said in his statement, saying that Under Armour "remains resolute in our potential and ability to improve American manufacturing."


"I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing," Krzanich said.



On Tuesday morning, Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing said on Twitter, "I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do."

Tuesday evening, AFL-CIO's president Richard Trumka and its former deputy chief of staff Thea Lee announced their resignation. "We must resign on behalf of America’s working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups," Trumka said in a statement, calling the council "yet another broken promise on the President’s record." "It’s clear that President Trump’s Manufacturing Council was never an effective means for delivering real policy that lifts working families and his remarks today were the last straw."