In ordinary times, it would be a mistake to expect CEOs to take a national leadership role during political crisis. CEOs are risk-averse and rarely see any upside to weighing in publicly on political debate.

But these are not ordinary times. CEOs already see that the biggest risk for them when it comes to President Donald Trump is failing to act.

The blowback from the Charlottesville, Va. violence and the resultant implosion of Trump’s business councils shows that CEOs can play a pivotal role by taking a stand against the president. With the United States facing what Republican Senator Ben Sasse described — back in March — as a “civilization-warping crisis of public trust,” business titans have already displayed backbone by rebuking the president in the days since Charlottesville.

They can do more. CEOs have had to act because of public demand and because the Republican-controlled Congress has not. Having taken the important first step of disbanding the White House business councils, the CEOs who have left these councils (and their peers) should now go further and call for Trump's resignation.

These former council members are the most important CEOs in the nation — leaders of General Electric GE, -1.74% , IBM IBM, -0.44% , 3M MMM, +0.05% , General Motors GM, -1.46% , and more. CEOs need to act in unison, coalescing behind a common statement — a CEO manifesto — that we provide below. This need not be a pipe dream; After all, the CEOs in the president’s councils not only agreed to disband and resign, but some were also discussing condemning Trump.

GM CEO Mary Barra’s involvement, ironically, harkens back to that classic dictum, uttered in 1953 by then GM CEO Charles Erwin Wilson when GM was the most powerful corporation in America: "What was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa."

What Barra and other prominent CEOs seem to be saying now is that Trump is not good for the country, and the corollary: that his leadership not good for General Motors or other big U.S. companies.

Yet if CEOs instead sit on the sidelines, will future generations see them as complicit in lending support to a president who threatens core American values of morality, democracy, society, and capitalism? American business, however economically motivated, has more of a moral compass than Trump, and in this moment, morality and business considerations overlap.

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To be sure, some CEOs opposed Trump early on, during the presidential campaign. After the inauguration, some CEOs (especially from technology) countered the president on immigration, signing on to an amicus brief and making public statements. Other CEOs spoke up after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement.

What is needed now is dramatic, decisive, and collective action to save the country from an out-of-control president. Let’s consider how CEOs might support a manifesto calling for the president’s resignation.

Step 1 — A trigger: One trigger for action just happened with Trump’s response to Charlottesville; but other triggers are likely in the coming weeks and months. A trigger may also result from the legal inquiries against the president. And there may be foreign events (the standoff with North Korea); or a stock market downturn.

Step 2 — Coalesce and confer: We know that such gatherings, via conference calls, took place soon after Charlottesville. The largest density of CEOs is in the Business Roundtable, which is aligned with Trump’s deregulation and tax reduction agenda.The Roundtable is led by JPMorgan Chase CEO JPM, -1.41% Jamie Dimon, once a Democratic supporter, who turned on Trump when he helped dissolve one of the president’s advisory councils. Could Dimon be CEO to the CEOs in this challenge to Trump? Several prominent CEOs are needed to lead this action: perhaps such a group includes Ken Frazier of Merck MRK, -0.87% , Tim Cook of Apple AAPL, -0.67% , Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo PEP, +0.55% , and Howard Schultz of Starbucks SBUX, -0.69% (now a retired CEO).

Step 3 — A CEO manifesto: A critical mass of CEOs is needed as signatories of the manifesto. Here is a proposed document:

We, CEOs of America’s largest firms, call upon Donald J. Trump to resign from the office of President of the United States of America.

We believe that:

President Donald J. Trump has made it clear that he believes that America’s traditionally accepted rules of power and governance do not apply to him. We run our corporations by adhering to accepted rules of power and governance. We expect the president to do the same. It is the right of American business to attempt to remedy this failure of national leadership.

Trump’s unstable presidency threatens to undermine the business-friendly environment that has made America truly great. The success of American companies depends on stability and predictability. Donald Trump’s presidency careens from one self-imposed crisis or ill-advised tweet to the next. We are deeply concerned about a president who inspires anxiety, fear, and ridicule, instead of confidence and strength.

American businesses have become great by being global: by welcoming global talent and by trading with the world. Donald Trump’s promise to “make America great again” is, in fact, a threat to abandon what actually has made America great. American businesses and the American people benefit from — and indeed depend on — vibrant, fully-engaged interaction with the world. Donald Trump’s actions in weakening U.S. international trade agreements and his threats to engage in trade wars with U.S. trading partners will weaken the U.S. economy. Trump is creating an opening for other nations to fill the vacuum created by America’s abdication of our global leadership.

American business looks to the president to be a beacon of decency, to fight hate, and to never make excuses for those who harbor hatred. Donald Trump’s statements following the Charlottesville, Va. rally have confirmed our worst fears: that our new President did not command the moral authority and has no likelihood of attaining that essential leadership trait.

We conclude that:

Donald Trump is a clear danger to American capitalism, American workers, and American democracy. The threat he poses is unprecedented.

This is not a partisan issue — some of us are Republicans, some Democrats, some are Independents. Our concerns are serious. We are worried about the security and future of the United States itself.

President Trump, it is time for you to resign.

Erran Carmel is a business professor at American University and a former dean of its Kogod School of Business.

Chris Edelson is an assistant professor of government in American University’s School of Public Affairs. His latest book, “ Power Without Constraint: The Post 9/11 Presidency and National Security ,” was published in May 2016 by the University of Wisconsin Press.