We Track Trump's Complicit CEOs So You Don't Have To
Update 1: Since this was originally posted in the morning on Tuesday, Aug. 15, Alliance for American Manufacturing‘s Scott Paul stepped down from Trump’s manufacturing council and Arconic’s Klaus Kleinfeld, Caterpillar’s Doug Oberhelman, Ford’s Mark Fields and U.S. Steel’s Mario Longhi had reportedly already left the council after leaving their positions at their respective companies.
Update 2: After a disastrous press conference during which Trump backtracked to blaming “both sides” for violence in Charlottesville, AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka resigned from the manufacturing council.
Update 3: On Wednesday, Aug. 16, 3M resigned from Trump’s manufacturing council and The New York Times reports CEOs are discussing disbanding the councils altogether.
Update 4: The Strategic and Policy Council and the American Manufacturing Councils have been disbanded. Executives who attended the American Technology Council meeting are, according to the latest reports, not considered formal members of the council.
Corporate executives who lined up to advise President Trump, embracing his pro-polluter, deregulatory and anti-tax policies while ignoring other elements of his outrageous conduct and policy agenda, are having second thoughts.
So far, three four corporate executives (out of a total of 48) and a trade group exec, and a labor union president have resigned from Trump’s advisory councils after the president shamefully delayed his condemnation of white supremacist violence after neo-fascist groups marched on Charlottesville, Va., and a marcher from Ohio allegedly drove a car into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators, killing Heather Heyer, an anti-racist activist, and injuring over a dozen others. An additional four have clarified that they were no longer council members.
The remaining 45 42 41 executives are sticking with Trump (see Update 4 above).
Early in his presidency, Trump has assembled three advisory committees whose membership consists almost entirely of corporate executives. In addition to CEOs, the committees reportedly include two one trade group executive, two one representative from the AFL-CIO, and the head of the Cleveland Clinic.
Here are the corporate executives who have resigned from Trump’s committees so far:
- Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck, the first to resign after the Charlottesville tragedy.
- Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour, who also resigned in the Charlottesville aftermath.
- Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, also a post-Charlottesville resignation.
- Inge Thulin, CEO of 3M, resigned after Trump at a press conference reaffirmed blame for violence on “both sides” in Charlottesville.
- Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who resigned over Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
- Bob Iger, Disney CEO, who also resigned over the Paris climate withdrawal.
- Travis Kalanick, former CEO of Uber, who resigned after Uber was criticized for profiting off of protests against Trump’s Muslim ban.
- Arconic‘s Klaus Kleinfeld, Caterpillar‘s Doug Oberhelman, Ford‘s Mark Fields and U.S. Steel‘s Mario Longhi reportedly all have resigned from the committee after leaving their respective corporations.
Scott Paul, president of the trade group Alliance for American Manufacturing and Rich Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, also resigned from Trump’s manufacturing committee.
The table below includes the 45 42 41 corporate executives who remained complicit with Trump until the groups were disbanded on Wed., August 16. Some have issued statements — many not until after Trump’s delayed statement — decrying racism and the Charlottesville violence.
An earlier version of this tracker included executives who attended Trump’s American Technology Council meeting. The corporate executives attendees, who are not formal members of the council, included Ginni Rometty of IBM, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, Eric Schmidt of Alphabet (Google), Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Chuck Robbins of Cisco, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Safra Catz of Oracle, Alex Carp of Palantir and Steven Mollenkopf of Qualcomm.
| EXECUTIVE | CORPORATION | TRUMP COMMITTEE |
|---|---|---|
| Dennis Muilenburg | Boeing | American Manufacturing Council |
| Denise Morrison | Campbell Soup Company | American Manufacturing Council |
| Wendell Weeks | Corning | American Manufacturing Council |
| Jim Kamsickas | Dana Inc | American Manufacturing Council |
| Michael Dell | Dell Technologies | American Manufacturing Council |
| Andrew Liveris | Dow Chemical Company | American Manufacturing Council |
| Jeff Immelt | General Electric | American Manufacturing Council |
| Bill Brown | Harris Corporation | American Manufacturing Council |
| Mark Sutton | International Paper | American Manufacturing Council |
| Alex Gorsky | Johnson & Johnson | American Manufacturing Council |
| Marilynn Hewson | Lockheed Martin Corporation | American Manufacturing Council |
| Michael Polk | Newell Brands | American Manufacturing Council |
| John Ferriola | Nucor Corporation | American Manufacturing Council |
| Rich Kyle | The Timken Company | American Manufacturing Council |
| Greg Hayes | United Technologies Corporation | American Manufacturing Council |
| Jeff Fettig | Whirlpool Corporation | American Manufacturing Council |
| Ginni Rometty | IBM | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Larry Fink | BlackRock | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Stephen Schwarzman | Blackstone | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Jim McNerney (former exec) | Boeing | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Rich Lesser | Boston Consulting Group | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Mark Weinberger | EY | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Jack Welch (former exec) | General Electric | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Mary Barra | General Motors | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Adebayo Ogunlesi | Global Infrastructure Partners / Goldman Sachs | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Daniel Yergin | IHS Markit | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Jamie Dimon | JPMorgan Chase | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Paul Atkins | Patomak Global Partners | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Indra Nooyi | PepsiCo | Strategic and Policy Forum |
| Dough McMillon | Wal-Mart | Strategic and Policy Forum |