Waves of criticism crashed into President Trump after he refused to denounce Nazis and white supremacists over Charlottesville violence. He chose, instead, to blame “many sides” for deadly incidents that left three people dead. The White House madly tried to spin Trump’s words into some message of inclusion while arguing that he meant to condemn these groups (even though he didn’t). One person who isn’t buying this dance of evasion is Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, the only black member of Trump’s American Manufacturing Council, who has chosen to resign with a (very) public statement:
“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.”
And almost as soon as the news broke, Trump — who is still refusing to specifically denounce the aforementioned extremist groups — paused whatever presidential business was at hand to lash out at Frazier: “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”
It is, of course, bad form to criticize the business practices of a member of one’s manufacturing council, but Trump’s gonna Trump. And he’s gonna criticize a black CEO for resigning from a council but won’t call out Nazis, which is a telling distinction.
Trump’s scheduled to address the press today at 3:00pm EST today while signing a memorandum on Chinese IP laws, and one can anticipate that the subject of Charlottesville will arise. Over the weekend, one Trump surrogate attempted to claim the president simply didn’t want to “dignify” Nazis/white supremacists with a mention, but many people suspect that he simply doesn’t want to alienate part of his fanbase.
Indeed, the Daily Stormer site was thrilled that Trump did not forsake them: “[Trump] refused to answer a question about White Nationalists supporting him. No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him.” Will Trump do it again today?
(Via Business Insider, The Independent & Variety)