Merck & Co. Inc. Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier said Monday that he will leave a presidential manufacturing advisory council, tying that decision both to his role “as CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience,” two days after deadly violence at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Two other CEOs followed his lead later that day.

“Our country’s strength stems from its diversity and the contributions made by men and women of different faiths, races, sexual orientations and political beliefs. America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people area created equal,” Frazier said in a statement, adding: “I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.”

President Donald Trump, whose immediate response to Charlottesville was widely condemned for not specifically censuring white supremacists, attacked Frazier — one of the few black CEOs of a major U.S. company and the only black member of the president’s manufacturing-jobs panel — nearly immediately afterward and later Monday evening.

“Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma MRK, +0.19% has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!” the president tweeted less than an hour after the release of Frazier’s statement. Later, he added that the company was “taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!”

After the Twitter exchange Monday morning, though, the president issued a more explicit statement condemning racism and saying that “those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Scott Paul, head of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a partnership between manufacturers and the United Steelworkers union, have also left the president’s manufacturing council, following Frazier’s lead.

Under Armour “engages in innovation and sports, not politics,” Plank said. Paul called it “the right thing” to do.

Intel’s Krzanich went into more detail.

“I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them,” he said in a statement. “We should honor — not attack — those who have stood up for equality and other cherished American values.”

Other corporate executives have left White House councils in response to previous presidential actions, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger, but the president did not attack either after their announcements.

Merck voluntarily released information about its U.S. drug-pricing practices earlier this year. Several drug makers have also done so, though they remain the exception, not the rule.

Read:Merck will release average drug-price increases to ‘provide greater transparency’



Violence broke out in the historic college town of Charlottesville after white nationalists marched there Friday night in advance of a planned Saturday rally against the city’s decision to take down a Confederate general’s statue and counterprotesters gathered in response.

When a car plowed into another vehicle near a group of counterprotesters on Saturday, one person was killed and nearly 20 were injured. According to the New York Times, at least 34 people were injured in total that day.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides — on many sides,” President Trump said afterward.

Democrats and Republicans criticized the president at the time for not singling out the white supremacists and not describing the attack as domestic terrorism.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. ALNY, +0.94% CEO John Maraganore and privately-held Yumanity Therapeutics CEO Tony Coles both said on Monday that they supported Merck’s Frazier.

Frazier took a principled stance and showed strong leadership, Coles said, adding, “these times try men’s souls. We need to all speak plainly vs. wrong.”

Box CEO Aaron Levie also chimed in a “bravo” to Frazier’s statement.

General Electric Chairman Jeff Immelt plans to stay on the president’s manufacturing council, according to a company statement, because “it is important for GE to participate in the discussion on how to drive growth and productivity in the U.S.”

“GE has no tolerance for hate, bigotry or racism, and we strongly condemn the violent extremism in Charlottesville over the weekend,” the statement said.

Other companies said recent events in Charlottesville would spur corporate changes.

GoDaddy Inc. said that it will no longer host the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, “as they have violated our terms of service.” The move appeared to be in response to a hateful Daily Stormer post about the woman who was killed in Charlottesville.

Cloud-communications platform Twilio will add “an explicit prohibition of hate speech” to its acceptable-use policy, CEO Jeff Lawson said Sunday, adding that it “hope[d] other tech [companies] do the same.”

See: GoDaddy kicks off neo-Nazi site for violating terms of service

Tesla’s Musk left the president’s strategic and policy forum and the manufacturing jobs initiative in June after the president pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord.

Disney’s Iger quit the president’s advisory council, describing his decision as “a matter of principle.”