Schwarzman and Trump at a meeting of the president's now-disbanded business advisory council. Photo: Evan Vucci / AP
Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman said members of President Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum — one of the business advisory groups that Trump abruptly disbanded last month — "were under legitimately, astonishing pressure" to quit after the president's controversial Charlottesville remarks. Schwarzman added that he received hundreds of emails after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia calling him a Nazi because of his role on the council.
Schwarzman's quote: "I was accused by people of being a Nazi. I mean, I'm Jewish. It was absurd ... What happened is, people who were running public companies at that time were concerned about employee reaction to what the president said or didn't say ... There were shareholders that were unhappy."
The backdrop: CEOs started quitting Trump's councils one after another in the days after Charlottesville. The Strategic and Policy Forum made the collective decision to disband minutes before Trump announced its end on Twitter.