Trump’s [Aust-led] council a “joke”

Trump’s disbanded Manufacturing Council, headed by Australia’s Andrew Liveris, has been described by one of its former high-powered members as a “joke”.

Richard Trumka said the council was not a vehicle to do real policy and its members – chief executives from leading US companies and other business and union leaders – never held a meeting.

Mr Trump was forced to axe the council on Wednesday after numerous members resigned in protest of the president’s controversial response to the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend.

“First of all, the council was sort of a joke,” Mr Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest group of unions in the US, told CNN.

“It never met.

“It didn’t do anything.

“It wasn’t a vehicle to do real policy.”

In January Mr Trump anointed Darwin-born Mr Liveris, chairman and chief executive of the Michigan-headquartered Dow Chemical Company, to head the council.

The council was designed to create American jobs by bringing together “the world’s most successful and creative business leaders”.

Mr Trumka and the chief executives of Under Armour, Merck, Intel, Johnson & Johnson and 3M quit following Mr Trump’s Charlottesville remarks where he blamed “many sides” for the violence.

The exodus forced Mr Trump to disband it on Wednesday, despite defiantly writing on Twitter a day earlier “for every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place”.

While some chief executives directly called out Mr Trump in their resignation statements, Mr Liveris was more benign and did not mention the president.

“Every member of the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative condemns racism and bigotry, and there cannot be moral ambiguity around the driving forces of the events in Charlottesville,” Mr Liveris wrote.

“However, in discussions I had with the White House earlier today, I indicated that in the current environment it was no longer possible to conduct productive discussions under the auspices of the Initiative.”

Johnson & Johnson chief executive Alex Gorsky’s statement took aim at the president.

“The president’s most recent statements equating those who are motivated by race-based hate with those who stand up against hatred is unacceptable and has changed our decision to participate in the White House Manufacturing Advisory Council,” Mr Gorsky wrote.

Source: Trump’s Aust-led council a “joke” | Perth Now