Campaign Action
Five business and labor organizations have determined that associating officially with Donald Trump on his business advisory committees is a very bad idea. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and colleague Thea Lee, Kenneth Frazier, chairman and CEO of Merck, Kevin Plank, the CEO of Under Armour, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, and Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing have left Trump’s advisory councils. That means that a majority of CEOs on the councils are either okay with their association with a man who refuses to renounce white supremacy, or they can't decide if they're okay with it.
Or, in the case of Douglas McMillon, the CEO of Walmart, he is complaining internally but not going anywhere, despite Trump's attacks on his colleagues who have demonstrated a bit more spine.
"As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists,” Douglas McMillon, the Walmart C.E.O., wrote in a letter to employees late Monday. […]
The president hit back at his critics in the business world during a news conference at Trump Tower Tuesday. He spent several minutes lashing out at some of the most prominent executives in the country, saying that those who left his councils were "not taking their jobs seriously” and were "leaving out of embarrassment.”
But it seems that a seat at the table is enough inducement for some to stick around. They have high expectations of this Republican president for their own bottom lines, after all.
Inside boardrooms, leaders are torn between a desire to reduce regulatory burdens and wariness of appearing to support the administration, board members and crisis managers say.
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. hasn't taken a position on the president or his policies, and the company isn't part of any White House advisory councils. […]
Northwestern's board members believe less government regulation "is good for policy owners in our industry," said [Dale Jones, a board member]. "We have to honor the authority of the president while at the same time hold true to our values and respect for dignity of all people."
One inducement might outweigh the lure of deregulation and get them to step back—and it isn't a moral one at this point. If morality and decency had anything to do with it, they'd all have left Saturday. No, it'll be profits, and examples like this: "Merck's share price rose nearly 1% Monday after Mr. Trump lashed out at the company's drug prices following Mr. Frazier's decision to withdraw from the White House manufacturing council."