More CEOs may ditch Trump
Alex Brandon / AP
"Merck & Co.'s Kenneth Frazier, then Under Armour Inc.'s Kevin Plank and Intel Corp.'s Brian Krzanich stepped down from a White House business group" (Manufacturing Jobs Initiative), per Bloomberg's Jeff Green:
"While none mentioned the president, Frazier, one of the country's most-prominent black chief executive officers, ... said he was acting on a 'matter of personal conscience.'"Trump quickly tweeted: "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!""As for Intel's Krzanich, his Twitter account was peppered [yesterday] by pleas for him to quit the White House group."Who's next? Davia Temin, head of the New York-based crisis-management firm Temin & Co: "This conversation is viral in boardrooms right now."Be smart: We know another prominent CEO who's agonizing over whether to quit a White House group; others are discussing it internally. And Axios business editor Dan Primack pointed out after Trump's tweet: "This sort of thing will only discourage other CEOs from formally engaging with the White House."Go deeper: "The CEOs who have left Trump's special councils."