By Peter Loftus
Three chief executives resigned Monday from a
manufacturing-advisory council to the Trump administration in an
apparent protest of the president's failure to quickly condemn the
white supremacists who marched and engaged in violence in
Charlottesville, Va., this weekend.
Drugmaker Merck & Co. issued a statement Monday morning on
Twitter from Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier, saying,
"America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly
rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which
run counter to the American ideal that all people are created
equal."
"As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel
a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and
extremism," Mr. Frazier said in the statement. A Merck spokeswoman
said the company had no comment beyond Mr. Frazier's statement.
Almost an hour later, President Donald Trump posted on Twitter:
"Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's
Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG
PRICES!"
Later Monday, Mr. Trump singled out white-nationalist groups by
name for condemnation after stopping short of doing so two days
earlier. Such groups had largely supported his presidential
campaign, and Mr. Trump was widely criticized on Saturday for
saying there was a display of hatred and violence in
Charlottesville by "many sides."
Intel Corp. Chief Executive Brian Krzanich on Monday night also
announced his resignation from the manufacturing-advisory council.
Mr. Krzanich stepped down "to call attention to the serious harm
our divided political climate is causing to critical issues,"
including the decline of U.S. manufacturing, he said in a
statement.
Mr. Krzanich, who sometimes issues tweets supporting progressive
causes such as diversity, earlier in the day spoke out against
Saturday's violence in Charlottesville, he said, and condemned
"white supremacists and their ilk who marched and committed
violence." The Intel CEO in his statement expressed a desire to
avoid politicizing national issues. "Promoting American
manufacturing should not be a political issue," he said.
Kevin Plank, founder and chief executive of Under Armour Inc.,
said late Monday that he also would step down from the council.
Earlier in the day, the company posted a comment attributed to Mr.
Plank on its Twitter account that read: "We are saddened by
#Charlottesville. There is no place for racism or discrimination in
this world. We choose love & unity."
Other CEOs who made statements on Twitter in response to the
weekend violence included Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The Wall Street chief quoted Abraham
Lincoln in tweeting: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
He added: "Isolate those who try to separate us. No equivalence w/
those who bring us together."
Mr. Frazier, who is African-American, and Mr. Krzanich and Mr.
Plank, who are white, were three of the 28 business and union
leaders the president named to the advisory council aimed at
helping him boost U.S. manufacturing jobs.
It has been known variously as the American Manufacturing
Council and the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative and is led by Dow
Chemical Co. CEO Andrew Liveris. Mr. Liveris said in a written
statementhe condemns the violence in Charlottesville, and that
there is no room for hatred, racism or bigotry at the company.
General Electric Co. Chairman Jeff Immelt will remain on the
manufacturing council, according to the company, which issued a
statement saying, "GE has no tolerance for hate, bigotry or racism,
and we strongly condemn the violent extremism in Charlottesville
over the weekend." The statement said, "It is important for GE to
participate in the discussion on how to drive growth and
productivity in the U.S."
Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of private-equity firm Blackstone Group
LP and the chairman of Mr. Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, a
group of executives tapped to advise the president on how
government policy affects business and the economy, condemned
"bigotry, hatred and extremism." He will remain chairman of the
panel, a spokeswoman said.
"Encouraging tolerance and understanding must be a core national
imperative and I will work to further that goal," Mr. Schwarzman
said in the statement.
Mr. Frazier is the latest CEO to step down from a role advising
the White House.
In June, Elon Musk of Tesla Inc. and Robert Iger of Walt Disney
Co. resigned from advisory roles after Mr. Trump said the U.S.
would withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
Mr. Musk tweeted at the time: "Leaving Paris is not good for
America or the world." Mr. Iger said at the time that he was
resigning from the president's business advisory council as "a
matter of principle."
Travis Kalanick, then Uber Technologies Inc.'s CEO, stepped down
from Mr. Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum in February after calls
by users to delete the ride-hailing service's app.
Mr. Frazier, a Merck veteran and its CEO since 2011, has met in
the past with Mr. Trump at the White House, including a gathering
of pharmaceutical CEOs in January when Mr. Trump told them drug
prices were too high.
Their public interactions appeared more cordial before Monday.
At the January meeting, Mr. Frazier shook hands with the president
and told him Merck, based in Kenilworth, N.J., employed thousands
of Americans in manufacturing and research jobs. In February, Mr.
Frazier met with Mr. Trump to discuss possible changes to U.S. tax
and trade policies that Mr. Frazier said would promote U.S.
economic growth.
In July, Mr. Frazier attended a White House event with the
president to announce a new glass-packaging product for drugs that
Corning Inc. co-developed with Merck and Pfizer Inc. "Thank you,
Mr. President, for your leadership. It's an honor to be here at the
White House, and I'm grateful for the administration's continued
support for American innovation and manufacturing," Mr. Frazier
said.
Mr. Frazier, an attorney, is one of two African-American CEOs of
companies in the S&P 500 index and one of four in the Fortune
500, according to the Executive Leadership Council, an organization
that supports increasing the number of black executives.
Merck makes diabetes drug Januvia, cancer treatment Keytruda and
the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil. It is the second-biggest
U.S. drugmaker by annual sales, behind Pfizer.
Shares in the drugmaker were up 0.5% at $62.66 in afternoon
trading Monday.
--Sara Germano, Nikki Waller, Tom Gryta, Nathan Becker and Ted
Greenwald contributed to this article.
Write to Peter Loftus at peter.loftus@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 15, 2017 00:15 ET (04:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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