AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is pictured. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Trumka quits White House manufacturing initiative

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka resigned from President Donald Trump's manufacturing council Tuesday, citing as the "last straw" the president's backpedaling from Monday's blanket condemnation of Saturday's white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"President Trump's remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday on the KKK and neo-Nazis," Trumka said in a statement on Twitter. "We must resign on behalf of America's working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups. It's clear that President Trump's Manufacturing Council was never a means for delivering real policy that lifts working families and his remarks today were the last straw."


In his remarks Tuesday about Saturday's march and counter demonstration, Trump said "there’s blame on both sides" and that there were "fine people" who attended the rally who were there only to protest the removal of a statu e of Gen. Robert E. Lee. The demonstration was preceded the night before by a well-publicized torchlight march in which participants chanted, among other things, "Jews will not replace us." At Saturday's rally, a car allegedly driven by a white supremacist rammed into a crowd and killed a counter protester.

Trumka's resignation follows those of chief executives for the pharmaceutical giant Merck, the men's sportswear manufacturer Under Armour and Intel, as well as the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Trumka signaled Monday that he might leave the council, noting that it "has yet to hold any real meeting" and saying there were "real questions" about its effectiveness.

