Donald Trump claimed today that he disbanded two White House business councils that were disintegrating around him in the wake of his controversial remarks supporting the alt-right, the KKK, and neo-Nazi groups.
Earlier, in an acerbic tweet, Trump had stated that resignations from both panels were of no consequence: “For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!”
Twenty-four hours later, though, he tweeted, “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!”
Interestingly enough, reports are now surfacing that the CEOs of the Manufacturing Council had reported their decision to terminate the group to the White House, and to get ahead of the business leaders who were abandoning him, Trump tweeted his misleading statement.
Similarly, Trump is claiming now that he has dismissed the President’s Council of Poetry. However, all members of the council -- including myself --had agreed to resign well before he even tweeted his statement (below). As a matter of fact, we all resigned on January 19, 2017 – but sources inside the White House report that Trump just found that out today.