Three more business leaders added their names Tuesday to the growing list of executives who have resigned from President Trump's manufacturing council: Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing; Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO; and Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO's deputy chief of staff.

"I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do," Paul wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning.

Even before Paul posted about his resignation on Twitter, the president beat him to the tweet, writing some 15 minutes earlier, "For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!"

On Tuesday afternoon, speaking about the violence in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, Trump appeared to backtrack on his critical comments a day earlier about the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists. He said he believes "there's blame on both sides."

Shortly after, Trumka specifically cited Trump's comments in a statement saying that he and Lee "cannot sit on a council for a President who tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism" and they "must resign on behalf of America's working people, who reject all notion of legitimacy of these bigoted groups."

By departing, Paul, Trumka and Lee follow in the footsteps of three CEOs — Merck's Kenneth Frazier, Under Armour's Kevin Plank and Intel's Brian Krzanich — who resigned from the council on Monday following the president's heavily criticized handling of the deadly violence that erupted at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

Frazier said in announcing his decision, "I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."

Of his departure, Trump replied, "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned ... he will have more time to lower ripoff drug prices!"

The council was formed back in January, when Trump launched the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative as part of his effort to create American jobs. At the time, the White House said the president would be "meeting with some of the world's most successful and creative business leaders to share their experiences and gain their insights."

Tesla founder Elon Musk left the manufacturing council and another presidential advisory group in June, citing his disagreement with Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

Here is the list of 28 business leaders the White House said were named to the council on Jan. 27 — we've used dashes to highlight the executives who have resigned:

Wendell Weeks, Corning Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. </s> With a string of executives leaving his manufacturing council in the wake of President Trump's controversial remarks about white supremacists, the president is disbanding the group he created in January. Trump said he's also ending his Strategic and Policy Forum, which he formed in December.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!" President Trump said in a tweet.

The move came shortly after two executives — 3M's Inge Thulin and Campbell Soup's Denise Morrison — said on Wednesday that they would be leaving the manufacturing council established by Trump, who has long touted the need to support American manufacturing jobs.

"Racism and murder are unequivocally reprehensible and are not morally equivalent to anything else that happened in Charlottesville", Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison stated, referring to Trump's much-criticized response to the white supremacist rally that resulted in the death of a counter-protester over the weekend.

3M President and CEO Inge Thulin said his decision to leave the group followed reflection on the values of "sustainability, diversity and inclusion."

The moves came one day after the resignations of Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing; Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO; and Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO's deputy chief of staff.

"I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do," Paul wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning.

Earlier this week, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, Under Armour's Kevin Plank and Intel's Brian Krzanich left the council that was set up by the president's Manufacturing Jobs Initiative.

Over the summer, Tesla founder Elon Musk left both the manufacturing council and the presidential Strategic and Policy Forum, having announced in June that he disagreed with Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

Like Musk, Disney CEO Bob Iger resigned from the president's Strategic and Policy Forum over Trump's climate policy. Others who left the group include former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who cited Trump's executive order on immigration.

Trump's decision to wind down the two groups comes after he struck a defiant tone about the resignations earlier this week, as criticism swirled around his comments that "both sides" were at fault in Charlottesville.

On Monday, Trump said, "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

On Tuesday, Trump stated, "For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!"

When the council was formed back in January, the White House said the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative would allow the president to meet with "some of the world's most successful and creative business leaders to share their experiences and gain their insights." </s> With at least five executives leaving his manufacturing council in the wake of President Trump's contentious remarks about white supremacists, the president is ending the group he created in January. Trump said he's also ending his strategy and policy forum, which he formed in December.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!" President Trump said in a tweet.

The move came shortly after two executives — 3M's Inge Thulin and Campbell Soup's Denise Morrison — said on Wednesday that they would be leaving the manufacturing council established by Trump, who has long touted the need to support American manufacturing jobs.

"Racism and murder are unequivocally reprehensible and are not morally equivalent to anything else that happened in Charlottesville", Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison stated, referring to Trump's much-criticized response to the white supremacist rally that resulted in the death of a counter-protester over the weekend.

3M President and CEO Inge Thulin said his decision to leave the group followed reflection on the values of "sustainability, diversity and inclusion."

The moves came one day after the resignations of Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing; Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO; and Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO's deputy chief of staff.

"I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do," Paul wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning.

Trump's decision to wind down the group comes after he struck a defiant tone about the resignations this week.

On Monday, Trump said, "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

On Tuesday, Trump stated, "For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!"

When the council was formed back in January, the White House said the the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative would allow the president to meet with "some of the world's most successful and creative business leaders to share their experiences and gain their insights." </s> Minutes after President Donald Trump castigated a trio of CEOs for abandoning his American Manufacturing Council, a fourth executive bailed on him.

'I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do,' Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, tweeted Tuesday.

Trump had just vowed on Twitter that '[f]or every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!'

It's unclear how Trump will replace Paul.

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank revealed on Monday afternoon that he was stepping down from the council to 'focus on inspiring and uniting through power of sport.'

A few hours later, he was joined by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.

Their resignations came less than a day after Merck pharmaceuticals CEO Kenneth Frazier announced he was leaving the group.

Plank said in his statement that he joined the council because he wanted Under Armour to have an 'active seat at the table and represent our industry'.

'We remain resolute in our potential and ability to improve American manufacturing. However, Under Armour engages in innovation and sport, not politics,' he wrote.

'I love our country and our company and will continue to focus my efforts on inspiring every person that they can do anything through the power of sport which promotes unity, diversity and inclusion.'

Krzanich said he resigned to because he wanted to 'make progress', and found the government's leaders to be more focused on scoring political points.

'Politics and political agendas have sidelined the importance of rebuilding America's manufacturing based,' he wrote in a lengthy statement.

'I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing.'

Krzanich likewise mentioned the violence that broke out in Charlottesville on Saturday after white supremacists stormed the University of Virginia campus.

'I have already made clear my abhorrence at the recent hate-spawned violence in Charlottesville, and earlier today I called on leaders to condemn the white supremacists and their ilk who marched and committed violence,' he wrote.

'I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them.'

Krzanich added that he hoped the country would once again honor those who 'stood up for equality and other cherished American values'.

'My request—my plea—to everyone involved in our political system is this: set scoring political points aside and focus on what is best for the nation as a whole.'

'The current environment must change, or else our nation will become a shadow of what it once was and what it still can and should be.'

Frazier, the council's only black member, was the first to resign on Monday.

He called on American leaders to clearly reject 'expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy'.

'As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism,' he wrote.

Trump was quick to attack Frazier following his resignation, tweeting that Frazier would now have 'more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES'.

'@Merck Pharma is a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!' Trump tweeted again as he left Washington for New York.

Trump has so far remained quiet on Plank and Krzanich's resignations, instead tweeting that it felt 'good to be home' in New York after seven months.

'But the White House is very special, there is no place like it...and the US is really my home!' he added.

Of the 21 members who remain on Trump's council, only one has said outwardly said they are reassessing their position.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, one of the top labor leaders in the country, called on Trump to 'unequivocally denounce the actions of bigoted domestic terrorists in Charlottesville'.

'We are aware of the decisions by other members of the President's Manufacturing Counil, which has yet to hold any real meeting, and are assessing our role,' he said in a widely-released statement.

'While the AFL-CIO will remain a powerful voice for the freedoms of working people, there are real questions into the effectiveness of this council to deliver real policy that lifts working families.'

Leaders for Campbell Soup, Dell, Dow Chemical, International Paper, Nucor, and Whirlpool all confirmed with Fortune that they will be staying on the council.

Of that group, Campbell, Dow, International Paper, and Nucor explicitly condemned the violence in Charlottesville.

Leaders for Harris Corp, Alliance for American Manufacturing, and Lockheed Martin - the remaining companies on the council - either could not be reached or would not provide a comment.

Trump has been facing major backlash over his much-panned response to Charlottesville, in which one counter-protester was killed.

Nazi sympathizer James Fields, a 20-year-old from Ohio, used his Dodge Charger to run over counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 more.

He's been charged with second degree murder.

On Saturday, Trump made a statement from his Bedminster resort in New Jersey saying, 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.'

Critics, including a handful of Congressional Republicans, suggested that Trump was falsely equating the neo-Nazis, KKK members and white supremacists protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee with those marching against the hate groups.

It would be two days before Trump finally condemned the hate groups by name.

'Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,' he said at the White House.

'We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.'

It took Trump under an hour to respond to Frazier's decision to quit the manufacturing board.

Six prominent CEOs have since walked away from one of Trump's White House boards.

On the heels of Trump exiting the Paris climate accord, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, also part of the American Manufacturing Council, threw in the towel.

Disney CEO Bob Iger, who served on the president's Strategic and Policy Forum exited over Paris too.

Now former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick left Trump's boards in February over the administration's travel ban, which targeted Muslim-majority countries. </s> How did President Trump’s two business advisory councils fall apart so quickly?

It started with one CEO standing up to Trump. The rest soon followed him out the door.

After a group of white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, killing a counter-protester, President Trump delivered controversial remarks the next day.

His speech drew widespread criticism. Many faulted him for his late response and for not denouncing the white supremacists by name.

–8 a.m. ET: Merck CEO Ken Frazier, one of very few black Fortune 500 CEOs, took the first step. He stepped down from President Trump’s manufacturing council, saying “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.”

–8:54 a.m.: Trump tweets that Frazier will now “have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”

–1 p.m.: The president delivers a speech in which he calls the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists ‘repugnant.’

–11:37 a.m.: Scott Paul, president of Alliance for American Manufacturing, resigns.

–On Tuesday afternoon, Trump gave a news conference inside Trump Tower. Trump reiterated his earlier position on the weekend saying: “I think there is blame on both sides.”

–5:45 p.m.: Richard Trumka, president of the labor group AFL-CIO and Thea Lee, economist at the AFL-CIO, resign.

–1:14 p.m.: Trump tweets, announcing he was dissolving both the manufacturing council and economic advisory council: “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!”

–1:20 p.m.: United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes puts out a statement, explaining his exit from the manufacturing council.

–1:30 p.m.: Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson releases a statement about why he resigned.

–2 p.m.: General Electric’s Jeff Immelt issues a statement on his decision to leave the council. </s> The fallout from President Trump's response to the Charlottesville tragedy escalated Wednesday as more prominent CEOs quit advising the White House on economic matters and Trump disbanded his manufacturing and business policy councils.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!," Trump tweeted.

Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison and 3M CEO Inge Thulin Wednesday joined a growing list of American chief executives who are leaving the president's manufacturing job council, an advisory group the White House formed this year.

Pressure from the business community has been intensifying this week following Trump's widely criticized response to violence that erupted after a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

On Monday, Merck CEO Ken Frazier became the first major American chief executive to speak out against Trump's response, quitting the manufacturing council as "a matter of personal conscience."

Frazier's decision was followed hours later by other CEOs on the council, including Intel and Under Armour.

With the hashtag #Quitthecouncil trending, resignations continued in the last 48 hours as the chief executives of AFL-CIO, 3M, Campbell Soup and Alliance for American Manufacturing also ditched their relationships with the president.

"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 are created equal," Frazier said. "As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."

Frazier's resignation prompted an angry rebuke from Trump on Twitter. "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!," Trump tweeted.

But Trump's initial refusal to name the specific hate groups that rallied in Charlottesville moved the other CEOs to walk away while extolling diversity and tolerance as company values.

Others who chose to stick with the councils cited the need to stay engaged with the White House to make meaningful changes. But the steady drumbeat for them to disassociate from Trump was growing daily.

But their resignations may have business motives as well, said Bill Klepper, professor of management at Columbia Business School. "I think they’re finding the cost of alignment with Trump is too high," he said. "They have a social contract to stakeholders (that says here’s what we stand for. These are our core values. Here’s how we’re going to contribute and win as a business in society. And we’re going to do it through ethical principles."

"And lots of things Trump has been doing or not doing come close to violating the social contact," Klepper said. </s> Two more business leaders left one of President Donald Trump's manufacturing advisory councils Tuesday, including the head of the nation's largest labor federation.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Alliance for American Manufacturing head Scott Paul joined the chief executives of Merck, Intel and Under Armour, who left Monday in the wake of Trump's initial remarks following the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump had unleashed a Twitter blast earlier in the day against the CEOs who left his Manufacturing Council and boasted that he would easily replace them.

"For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on," he tweeted Tuesday morning, adding at the end, "JOBS!"

Trumka announced he was leaving the council Tuesday afternoon after Trump, during a press conference from Trump Tower in Manhattan, blamed the Charlottesville bloodshed on "two sides."

Walmart's CEO, Doug McMillon, a member of a Trump advisory council on economic development, added his rebuke to the chorus.

“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," wrote McMillon in an internal employee memo that was also posted to a public Walmart website. The Walmart executive, however, isn't leaving the board.

The defection by a set of influential corporate leaders Trump personally picked for guidance is the latest snub for a president who touted his “Art of the Deal” business acumen as a fresh perspective on the problems in which the overly politicized “swamp” of Washington, D.C., found itself mired.

But the president’s relationship with corporate America has increasingly shown signs of fracture, as business leaders struggle to please customers and investors who oppose Trump's hard-line policies and question his effectiveness, and those who applaud his strong-arm techniques.

Now this wave of exits threatens to to become a "tsunami," Richard Levick, CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based LEVICK crisis management and public relations firm, told NBC News.

"There is a greater risk for CEOs staying on this council than leaving. This is a president who until this past weekend only dog whistled to the far right," he said. "Now, CEOs cannot remain and face their customers or shareholders or anyone they may want to face and say they care about diversity."

By staying, the CEOs theoretically got one-on-one face time with Trump and the opportunity to make the case for their own business and political interests. And of course there's the prestige factor. Or they may see serving the president, whatever they think of him, as their patriotic duty, as Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has said.

"There's always an upside to participating in a White House council," said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Brookings Institution think tank. "You get access to decision makers, access to the President. These are coveted slots that people like because they can try and get their point of view across about things that affect their industry."

One other mitigating factor may be that a single tweet from the president directed at a company can temporarily ding stock prices and inspire a magnifying storm of angry tweets from his followers, along with unwanted follow-up news coverage.

After Merck CEO Ken Frazier announced on Monday his decision to leave, the president immediately singled him out in a tweet, saying, "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

While it's not that unusual, historically speaking, for C-suite executives to clash with their commander-in-chief and for words to get heated, political observers say this time is different.

In 1907, trust-busting and pro-regulation President Theodore Roosevelt spoke against overreaching businesses, calling them "malefactors of great wealth." After Roosevelt's term ended and he was on an African hunting safari, banking magnate J.P. Morgan quipped, “Let every lion do his duty.”

Later, President John F. Kennedy, concerned over inflation, jawboned the steel companies after they hiked prices, saying, "My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches." One steel magnate retorted that "higher steel prices cause inflation like wet streets cause rain." Ultimately the industry retracted some of its price increases.

So while there are disagreements, "Usually it's over business issues," said Richard Sylla, a professor of economics at the New York University Stern School of Business. But here, "the business leaders are taking a moral stance on fundamental American issues."

Business leaders have to weigh these upsides against the prospect of employee and customer backlash against being associated with a polarizing president. On Tuesday afternoon, #QuitTheCouncil started trending on Twitter as customers began using it to pressure companies into leaving the advisory groups.

Trump’s main advisory council was created in December last year, before he took office, and met for the first time in February with the goal of offering help to further job creation. Council chair Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone said at the time that one of the group’s purposes was to “de-bottleneck some things.”

That initial White House meeting was led by President Trump and included JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Walt Disney’s Bob Iger, Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon, Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, and Mary Barra of General Motors. Vice President Mike Pence and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner also attended.

Following that session, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, gushed about the president’s engagement and even termed it “a fabulous meeting.” The executives around the table were reportedly dispatched with homework and asked to report at a later date.

Since then, though, Kamarck said the companies may have contributed to discussions on getting rid of regulation, but besides the February meeting the group had accomplished "nothing substantive."

Levick had a bit of PR advice for the president: "It's time to disband the councils."

CORRECTION (3:10 p.m., Aug. 15): A previous version of this article misidentified the president who first said businesses were "malefactors of great wealth." The phrase was first used by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907, not Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1930s. (FDR used the line when quoting his fifth cousin Theodore.) The article also misidentified the Roosevelt who was the target of J.P. Morgan’s ire. It was Theodore, not Franklin. </s> WASHINGTON D.C. - The fallout from President Trump's response to the Charlottesville tragedy escalated Wednesday as more prominent CEOs quit advising the White House on economic matters and Trump disbanded his manufacturing and business policy councils.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!," Trump tweeted.

Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison and 3M CEO Inge Thulin Wednesday joined a growing list of American chief executives who are leaving the president's manufacturing job council, an advisory group the White House formed this year.

Pressure from the business community has been intensifying this week following Trump's widely criticized response to violence that erupted after a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

On Monday, Merck CEO Ken Frazier became the first major American chief executive to speak out against Trump's response, quitting the manufacturing council as "a matter of personal conscience."

Frazier's decision was followed hours later by other CEOs on the council, including Intel and Under Armour.

►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the WZZM 13 app now.

Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. </s> The members of Trump's main business council discussed disbanding the group entirely according to multiple reports.

According to the New York Times' David Gelles, Landon Thomas Jr., and Kate Kelly, the members of the Strategic and Policy Forum held a phone call on Wednesday to discuss the future of the council and their relationship with the White House.

The discussion comes two days after the departure of Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier from Trump's manufacturing council, another one of the White House's meetings of business leaders, set off a wave of departures from that group. Frazier and other business leaders cited Trump's muddled response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia as the impetus for the exits.

The Strategic and Policy Forum features a diverse group of leaders including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon. Steve Schwarzman, CEO of private equity giant Blackstone, is the leader of the council.

According to the Times, even if the group did not disband, a number of executives said they would depart from the council.

Trump, for his part, attacked those executives who left the manufacturing council calling them "grandstanders" and saying they were "embarrassed" because they manufactured their products outside of the US.

The manufacturing council is expected to hold a similar phone call as the Strategic Forum's later on Wednesday.
Alliance for American Manufacturing president Scott Paul, AFL–CIO president Richard Trumka and the union's former chief of staff Thea Lee resign from President Trump's American Manufacturing Council due to their disagreements with Trump's response to the rally. The three corporate executives join Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, who also resigned from the council in protest the day prior.