Trump disbands White House business councils amid resignations
US President Donald Trump says he is ending a pair of White House advisory councils that were staffed by corporate chief executives.
CEOs have been resigning since Saturday, when Mr Trump blamed both sides for the weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and counter-protesters.
The resignations accelerated after Mr Trump again blamed "both sides" on Tuesday.
Mr Trump said on Twitter: "Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!"
Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017
Standing in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday, Mr Trump acknowledged that there were "some very bad people" among those who gathered to protest on Saturday. But he added: "You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides."
Trump's remarks were widely criticised in Washington and around the country.
The CEO of Campbell Soup is resigning from a White House jobs panel over comments about racism made by US President Donald Trump.
Campbell CEO Denise Morrison said in a company release: "Racism and murder are unequivocally reprehensible and are not morally equivalent to anything else that happened in Charlottesville. I believe the President should have been - and still needs to be - unambiguous on that point."
Mr Trump suggested in remarks on Tuesday that the white supremacists and counter-protesters were both blameworthy for violence that erupted this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Mrs Morrison said the president's comments triggered her resignation from the manufacturing jobs panel.
Mrs Morrison is the seventh person to resign from two major advisory panels this week following Mr Trump's comments.
