Business executives who distanced themselves from President Donald Trump a year ago in the wake of the deadly clashes in Charlottesville are back to finding common cause with the administration.

The guest list for a Tuesday night dinner at the president’s Bedminster, New Jersey, country club includes 15 top executives of some of the country’s largest companies. Of the guests, one publicly resigned from a Trump outside advisory council after the president's refusal to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis. And two others were reportedly close to stepping down from another advisory council before Trump abruptly dissolved the councils himself amid the backlash.


The dinner offers Trump a high-profile opportunity to show his critics that at least some in the business community have set aside their previous criticism of him.

“They feel that they can associate with [Trump] now because his policies have been such an amazing success,” said Stephen Moore, an economic adviser to Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Moore added that he was surprised the president, infamous for blocking those he believes have betrayed him, invited some executives back into the fold: “I don’t understand why President Trump would invite anyone who ran for the high grass when there was the first signs of trouble.”

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One of the attendees slated to attend Tuesday’s dinner, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky, released a statement last year criticizing Trump and announcing his decision to step down from Trump’s advisory council on manufacturing.

Though Gorsky had initially insisted he would remain on the council, he changed his mind after Trump gave a press conference at Trump Tower in which he drew an equivalence between white supremacists and the protesters who rallied in Charlottesville against their racist views. “[T]he president’s remarks yesterday — equating those who are motivated by race-based hate with those who stand up against hatred — were unacceptable,” Gorsky said in the statement at the time. A Johnson & Johnson spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why Gorsky decided to attend the Bedminster dinner.

At least two other attendees – PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and Ernst & Young CEO Mark Weinberger – were reportedly weighing stepping down from a separate outside policy advisory group before the president announced that he was disbanding the councils.

Several Trump loyalists are also among the invitees to the dinner, including Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm, Red Apple Group CEO John Catsimatidis and LeFrak CEO Richard LeFrak. Hamm, a vocal defender of Trump who has advised him on energy policy, donated $25,000 in May to a legal defense fund created for the benefit of White House aides.

Another attendee, FedEx CEO Fred Smith, also has close ties to Trump, even though he has criticized Trump’s trade policies. Smith was among the business executives who attended a "Pledge to America's Workers" event last month at the White House, where he received repeated shoutouts from Trump.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who will also attend the dinner, has also courted Trump since he took office and regularly speaks with the president.

Though Nooyi was among the executives who were angry about Trump’s remarks about Charlottesville, she also has close ties to the White House. Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter and adviser, called Nooyi a “mentor” to her in a tweet Tuesday morning amid news that Nooyi would step down as Pepsi’s CEO.

International Paper CEO Mark Sutton, another of the participants scheduled to attend Tuesday’s dinner, condemned the violence that took place in Charlottesville in a statement at the time, but said he was remaining on Trump’s manufacturing council.

Other attendees scheduled to attend Tuesday’s dinner include Fiat Chrysler CEO Michael Manley, Mastercard CEO Ajaypal Banga, Boston Beer Company chairman Jim Koch, Honeywell CEO Darius Adamczyk, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy and DocuSign chairman Keith Krach.

The dinner comes during Trump’s working vacation in Bedminster, which White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Monday is taking place while the “White House undergoes needed renovations to the Oval Office and other areas in the West Wing.”

White House aides have organized several meetings with the president throughout the week.

