The fallout from President Trump's response to the Charlottesville tragedy escalated Wednesday as more prominent CEOs quit advising the White House on economic matters and Trump disbanded his manufacturing and business policy councils.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!," Trump tweeted.

Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison and 3M CEO Inge Thulin Wednesday joined a growing list of American chief executives who are leaving the president's manufacturing job council, an advisory group the White House formed this year.

Pressure from the business community has been intensifying this week following Trump's widely criticized response to violence that erupted after a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

On Monday, Merck CEO Ken Frazier became the first major American chief executive to speak out against Trump's response, quitting the manufacturing council as "a matter of personal conscience."

Frazier's decision was followed hours later by other CEOs on the council, including Intel and Under Armour.

With the hashtag #Quitthecouncil trending, resignations continued in the last 48 hours as the chief executives of AFL-CIO, 3M, Campbell Soup and Alliance for American Manufacturing also ditched their relationships with the president.

"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," Frazier said. "As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."

Frazier's resignation prompted an angry rebuke from Trump 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!," Trump tweeted.

But Trump's initial refusal to name the specific hate groups that rallied in Charlottesville moved the other CEOs to walk away while extolling diversity and tolerance as company values.

Others who chose to stick with the councils cited the need to stay engaged with the White House to make meaningful changes. But the steady drumbeat for them to disassociate from Trump was growing daily.

But their resignations may have business motives as well, said Bill Klepper, professor of management at Columbia Business School. "I think they’re finding the cost of alignment with Trump is too high," he said. "They have a social contract to stakeholders (that says here’s what we stand for. These are our core values. Here’s how we’re going to contribute and win as a business in society. And we’re going to do it through ethical principles."

"And lots of things Trump has been doing or not doing come close to violating the social contact," Klepper said.</s>Three more business leaders added their names Tuesday to the growing list of executives who have resigned from President Trump's manufacturing council: Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing; Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO; and Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO's deputy chief of staff.

"I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do," Paul wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning.

Even before Paul posted about his resignation on Twitter, the president beat him to the tweet, writing some 15 minutes earlier, "For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!"

On Tuesday afternoon, speaking about the violence in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, Trump appeared to backtrack on his critical comments a day earlier about the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists. He said he believes "there's blame on both sides."

Shortly after, Trumka specifically cited Trump's comments in a statement saying that he and Lee "cannot sit on a council for a President who tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism" and they "must resign on behalf of America's working people, who reject all notion of legitimacy of these bigoted groups."

By departing, Paul, Trumka and Lee follow in the footsteps of three CEOs — Merck's Kenneth Frazier, Under Armour's Kevin Plank and Intel's Brian Krzanich — who resigned from the council on Monday following the president's heavily criticized handling of the deadly violence that erupted at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

Frazier said in announcing his decision, "I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."

Of his departure, Trump replied, "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned ... he will have more time to lower ripoff drug prices!"

The council was formed back in January, when Trump launched the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative as part of his effort to create American jobs. At the time, the White House said the president would be "meeting with some of the world's most successful and creative business leaders to share their experiences and gain their insights."

Tesla founder Elon Musk left the manufacturing council and another presidential advisory group in June, citing his disagreement with Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

Here is the list of 28 business leaders the White House said were named to the council on Jan. 27 — we've used dashes to highlight the executives who have resigned:

Wendell Weeks, Corning Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.</s>WASHINGTON -- Under pressure from right and left, President Donald Trump condemned white supremacist groups by name on Monday, declaring "racism is evil" after two days of public equivocation and internal White House debate over the deadly race-fueled clashes in Charlottesville, Va.

In a hastily arranged statement at the White House, Trump branded members of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take part in violence as "criminals and thugs."

The groups are "repugnant to everything that we hold dear as Americans," he said.

In his initial remarks on the violence Saturday, Trump did not single out the groups and instead bemoaned violence on "many sides." Those remarks prompted stern criticism from fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, who urged him to seize the moral authority of his office to condemn hate groups.

[PRESIDENT TRUMP: Timeline, appointments, executive orders + guide to actions in first 200 days]

Taking pains to insist "as I said on Saturday," Trump denounced the hate groups and called for unity.

"We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence," he said.

Trump for the first time mentioned Heather Heyer by name as he paid tribute to the woman killed when a car rammed counterprotesters.

There were fewer responses to Trump's statement Monday, though Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a frequent Trump critic, tweeted, "Well done Mr. President."

At a trade event later in the day, Trump was asked why it took two days for him to offer an explicit denunciation of the hate groups.

"They have been condemned," Trump responded before offering a fresh criticism of some media as "fake news."

He followed with a tweet declaring "the #fakenews will never be satisfied."

Trump noted that the Justice Department has opened a civil-rights investigation.

His attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said earlier Monday on ABC's Good Morning America, "You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America."

Sessions also defended Trump's initial response to the violence.

Sessions said that the violence in Charlottesville met the definition of domestic terrorism, a phrase that both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been urging the president to use to describe the melees on Saturday.

"It does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute," Sessions said. "We are pursuing it [at] the Department of Justice in every way that we can make a case."

Early Monday, the CEO of the nation's third-largest pharmaceutical company said he was resigning from the president's American Manufacturing Council, citing "a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."

"America's leaders must honor our fundamental views by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal," Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier said in a tweet announcing he was stepping down from the panel. Frazier is one of just a handful of black chief executives of a Fortune 500 company.

Trump lashed back at Frazier on Twitter, saying Frazier "will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

On Monday night, the CEO of athletic wear manufacturer Under Armour also resigned from the panel, saying his company "engages in innovation and sports, not politics." Kevin Plank did not specifically mention Trump or Charlottesville, but he said his company will focus on promoting "unity, diversity and inclusion" through sports.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich followed, writing that while he had urged leaders to condemn "white supremacists and their ilk," many in Washington "seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them."

Trump's softer statement on Saturday had come as graphic images of a car plowing into a crowd in Charlottesville were playing continually on television. White nationalists had assembled in the city to protest plans to take down a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and counterprotesters gathered in opposition. Fights broke out, and then a vehicle rammed into the opponents of the white supremacists. One woman was killed and many more were badly hurt. Twenty-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio is charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit-and-run.

Fields was denied bail Monday in his first court appearance.

Prosecutors did not detail the evidence against the Maumee, Ohio, man who went to Virginia to attend the rally, according to his mother, who spoke over the weekend.

Monday's hearing shed little light on what Sessions called an "evil attack."

Fields replied "no sir,"when asked in court whether he has any ties to the Charlottesville community.

Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville was killed Saturday when, police say, Fields barreled toward her and other counterprotesters in his 2017 Dodge Challenger as he drove "at a high rate of speed," rear-ended another car and pushed vehicles into a crowd of pedestrians. Police say Fields then backed up and fled.

At his appearance before Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. in Charlottesville General District Court, Fields said he could not afford an attorney and was appointed one by the court.

According to police records released Monday, Fields was previously accused of beating his mother and threatening her with a knife.

Samantha Bloom, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, repeatedly called police about Fields in 2010 and 2011, telling officers he was on medication to control his temper, transcripts from 911 calls show.

Records show that Fields was arrested and put in juvenile detention after his mother reported in 2011 that he stood behind her wielding a 12-inch knife.

The judge informed Fields that he could not be defended by the Charlottesville Public Defender's Office because a relative of someone who works for the office had been involved in Saturday's events.

"I'm going to make a decision that you could not have a bond until you see your attorney," the judge said in appointing Charles Weber to represent Fields.

The streets of Charlottesville broke out in violent clashes after white nationalist groups arrived to hold a noontime rally -- one of a series in recent months that groups affiliated with far-right ideologies have held since the decision to remove the statue. Police officers with riot gear and tear gas dispersed the crowds shortly before the rally's scheduled start, leaving demonstrators angry and Charlottesville reeling.

Those tensions spilled into Monday, as Matthew Heimbach, an Indiana man who is active in white nationalist groups, appeared outside the complex where Fields made his video appearance. In front of cameras, Heimbach blamed Saturday's violence on the police and counterprotesters. As he spoke, bystanders chanted, "Nazis, go home!"

"We will be back in Charlottesville," Heimbach said. "We will stand here. We will stand everywhere."

Protests continued in other cities, as well, with thousands of people protesting outside Trump Tower in New York City as Trump went home for the first time since his inauguration.

In Durham, N.C., protesters toppled a nearly century-old statue of a Confederate soldier. Activists took a ladder up to the statue and used a rope to pull down the Confederate Soldiers Monument that was dedicated in 1924.

Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said Monday that he "absolutely has regrets" about the violence over the weekend.

As the world watched pandemonium in Charlottesville unfold live on television Saturday, officers seemed to stand on the sidelines as fists flew, bats swung and objects soared through the air.

"We were hoping for a peaceful demonstration," Thomas said at a news conference. "Gradually the crowd size increased along with aggressiveness and hostility of the attendees towards one another."

On Monday, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he directed his administration to conduct an "extensive review" of how police prepare and respond to rallies. Law enforcement experts and the city's former police chief were critical of the way police responded, saying the ostensibly hands-off approach seemed to allow the violent fracas to grow.

Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Lemire, Julie Bykowicz, Jay Reeves, Dake Kang, Sarah Rankin, Brian Witte, Michael Balsamo, Rebecca Gibian, Verena Dobnik and Jonathan Drew of The Associated Press; by Glenn Thrush, Laurie Goodstein, Jess Bidgood and Hawes Spencer of The New York Times; and by Sari Horwitz, Joe Heim, Michael E. Miller, Justin Wm. Moyer and Arelis R. Hernandez of The Washington Post.</s>Minutes after President Donald Trump castigated a trio of CEOs for abandoning his American Manufacturing Council, a fourth executive bailed on him.

'I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do,' Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, tweeted Tuesday.

Trump had just vowed on Twitter that '[f]or every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!'

It's unclear how Trump will replace Paul.

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank revealed on Monday afternoon that he was stepping down from the council to 'focus on inspiring and uniting through power of sport.'

A few hours later, he was joined by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.

Their resignations came less than a day after Merck pharmaceuticals CEO Kenneth Frazier announced he was leaving the group.

Plank said in his statement that he joined the council because he wanted Under Armour to have an 'active seat at the table and represent our industry'.

'We remain resolute in our potential and ability to improve American manufacturing. However, Under Armour engages in innovation and sport, not politics,' he wrote.

'I love our country and our company and will continue to focus my efforts on inspiring every person that they can do anything through the power of sport which promotes unity, diversity and inclusion.'

Krzanich said he resigned to because he wanted to 'make progress', and found the government's leaders to be more focused on scoring political points.

'Politics and political agendas have sidelined the importance of rebuilding America's manufacturing based,' he wrote in a lengthy statement.

'I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing.'

Krzanich likewise mentioned the violence that broke out in Charlottesville on Saturday after white supremacists stormed the University of Virginia campus.

'I have already made clear my abhorrence at the recent hate-spawned violence in Charlottesville, and earlier today I called on leaders to condemn the white supremacists and their ilk who marched and committed violence,' he wrote.

'I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them.'

Krzanich added that he hoped the country would once again honor those who 'stood up for equality and other cherished American values'.

'My request—my plea—to everyone involved in our political system is this: set scoring political points aside and focus on what is best for the nation as a whole.'

'The current environment must change, or else our nation will become a shadow of what it once was and what it still can and should be.'

Frazier, the council's only black member, was the first to resign on Monday.

He called on American leaders to clearly reject 'expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy'.

'As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism,' he wrote.

Trump was quick to attack Frazier following his resignation, tweeting that Frazier would now have 'more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES'.

'@Merck Pharma is a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!' Trump tweeted again as he left Washington for New York.

Trump has so far remained quiet on Plank and Krzanich's resignations, instead tweeting that it felt 'good to be home' in New York after seven months.

'But the White House is very special, there is no place like it...and the US is really my home!' he added.

Of the 21 members who remain on Trump's council, only one has said outwardly said they are reassessing their position.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, one of the top labor leaders in the country, called on Trump to 'unequivocally denounce the actions of bigoted domestic terrorists in Charlottesville'.

'We are aware of the decisions by other members of the President's Manufacturing Counil, which has yet to hold any real meeting, and are assessing our role,' he said in a widely-released statement.

'While the AFL-CIO will remain a powerful voice for the freedoms of working people, there are real questions into the effectiveness of this council to deliver real policy that lifts working families.'

Leaders for Campbell Soup, Dell, Dow Chemical, International Paper, Nucor, and Whirlpool all confirmed with Fortune that they will be staying on the council.

Of that group, Campbell, Dow, International Paper, and Nucor explicitly condemned the violence in Charlottesville.

Leaders for Harris Corp, Alliance for American Manufacturing, and Lockheed Martin - the remaining companies on the council - either could not be reached or would not provide a comment.

Trump has been facing major backlash over his much-panned response to Charlottesville, in which one counter-protester was killed.

Nazi sympathizer James Fields, a 20-year-old from Ohio, used his Dodge Charger to run over counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 more.

He's been charged with second degree murder.

On Saturday, Trump made a statement from his Bedminster resort in New Jersey saying, 'We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.'

Critics, including a handful of Congressional Republicans, suggested that Trump was falsely equating the neo-Nazis, KKK members and white supremacists protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee with those marching against the hate groups.

It would be two days before Trump finally condemned the hate groups by name.

'Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,' he said at the White House.

'We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.'

It took Trump under an hour to respond to Frazier's decision to quit the manufacturing board.

Six prominent CEOs have since walked away from one of Trump's White House boards.

On the heels of Trump exiting the Paris climate accord, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, also part of the American Manufacturing Council, threw in the towel.

Disney CEO Bob Iger, who served on the president's Strategic and Policy Forum exited over Paris too.

Now former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick left Trump's boards in February over the administration's travel ban, which targeted Muslim-majority countries.</s>WASHINGTON — The Latest on President Trump and the Charlottesville, Virginia violence (all times local):

President Donald Trump is blasting the CEOs who resigned from his manufacturing jobs council in the wake of the violence stemming from a white supremacist rally this past weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to the death of one counter-protester.

The president says on Twitter, “For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!”

Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, announced his resignation Tuesday, a day after a raft of departures by CEOs heading large U.S. corporations.

The heads of pharmaceutical giant Merck, the sports gear company Under Armour and the tech firm Intel decided to leave the advisory council. Trump initially criticized the violence on many sides, rather than singling out the white supremacists. The president on Monday later said condemned groups tied to racism.

Trump has not said if who will join his council as replacements.

The leaders of four minority House caucus groups have written a letter to President Donald Trump calling for the removal of White House staff aides Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka.

The heads of the black, Hispanic, Asian and progressive caucuses are calling in the letter for the firings of the Trump administration officials in the wake of a violent, racist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The letter asserts their continuing presence in the White House is emboldening a resurgent white supremacist movement in America.

“Americans deserve to know that white nationalists, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis are not in a position to influence U.S. policy,” says the letter dated Monday. “In this time of tumult in our country, Americans deserve a leader that will bring us all together and denounce those who seek to tear us apart.”

President Donald Trump is back in the New York skyscraper that bears his name as the furor over his reaction to race-fueled clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend shows few signs of dying down.

Protesters on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue tried to spoil Trump’s homecoming Monday night with signs bearing messages like “stop the hate, stop the lies” and chanting “shame, shame, shame” and “not my president!”

After two days of public equivocation and internal White House debate, the president condemned white supremacist groups by name on Monday, declaring “racism is evil”.

In a hastily arranged statement at the White House, Trump branded members of the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists who take part in violence as “criminals and thugs.”

The groups are “repugnant to everything that we hold dear as Americans,” he said.</s>President Trump announced Wednesday he is shutting down two jobs councils, amid a wave of resignations by executives in the wake of the president’s response to the violence in Charlottesville.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!" he wrote on Twitter.

The statement came amid multiple reports that the Strategic and Policy Forum, a group of top business leaders, had already agreed to disband.

This is separate from the manufacturing council which has seen multiple resignations since Trump’s initial weekend comments -- those resignations only accelerated after the president doubled down on his remarks at an impromptu press conference Tuesday.

Trump's decision to end both councils, however, seemed to catch companies off-guard. The exodus from the manufacturing board continued even after Trump's tweet.

The head of United Technologies Greg Hayes announced his resignation minutes after the president's announcement.

And minutes before Trump's tweet, Campbell Soup Company CEO Denise Morrison announced her departure, specifically citing the president's controversial remarks at Trump Tower a day earlier.

She said in a statement: "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. Following yesterday’s remarks from the President, I cannot remain on the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative."

Inge Thulin, CEO of manufacturing giant 3M, also resigned Wednesday from the council.

The statement said he joined the council to advocate policies that align with the company’s values and encourage job growth but, “After careful consideration, I believe the initiative is no longer an effective vehicle for 3M to advance these goals.”

Six others had resigned from the council since Saturday. Thulin and Morrison, though, were the first to bolt since Trump held his defiant press conference Tuesday defending his original statements on Charlottesville and attacking the “alt-left” for their alleged role in the clashes.

The president said “both sides” share blame, while still condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists. The comments revived criticism of his original response on Saturday, when Trump blamed "many sides" for the violence, after a car rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., killing one.

The president has fired back at those leaving his manufacturing council, calling them “grandstanders.” Before diving back into the Charlottesville controversy in his remarks Tuesday, Trump said people were quitting the manufacturing board “because they're not taking their job seriously as it pertains to this country.”

“They're having a lot of their product made outside [the U.S.],” he said. “Now, I have to tell you, some of the folks that will leave, they're leaving out of embarrassment because they make their products outside.”

Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, and another union leader also quit the council on Tuesday.

Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing; Brian Krzanich of Intel; Kenneth Frazier of Merck; and Kevin Plank of Under Armour also announced their departure.</s>Two more business leaders left one of President Donald Trump's manufacturing advisory councils Tuesday, including the head of the nation's largest labor federation.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Alliance for American Manufacturing head Scott Paul joined the chief executives of Merck, Intel and Under Armour, who left Monday in the wake of Trump's initial remarks following the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump had unleashed a Twitter blast earlier in the day against the CEOs who left his Manufacturing Council and boasted that he would easily replace them.

"For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on," he tweeted Tuesday morning, adding at the end, "JOBS!"

Trumka announced he was leaving the council Tuesday afternoon after Trump, during a press conference from Trump Tower in Manhattan, blamed the Charlottesville bloodshed on "two sides."

Walmart's CEO, Doug McMillon, a member of a Trump advisory council on economic development, added his rebuke to the chorus.

“As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists," wrote McMillon in an internal employee memo that was also posted to a public Walmart website. The Walmart executive, however, isn't leaving the board.

The defection by a set of influential corporate leaders Trump personally picked for guidance is the latest snub for a president who touted his “Art of the Deal” business acumen as a fresh perspective on the problems in which the overly politicized “swamp” of Washington, D.C., found itself mired.

But the president’s relationship with corporate America has increasingly shown signs of fracture, as business leaders struggle to please customers and investors who oppose Trump's hard-line policies and question his effectiveness, and those who applaud his strong-arm techniques.

Now this wave of exits threatens to to become a "tsunami," Richard Levick, CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based LEVICK crisis management and public relations firm, told NBC News.

"There is a greater risk for CEOs staying on this council than leaving. This is a president who until this past weekend only dog whistled to the far right," he said. "Now, CEOs cannot remain and face their customers or shareholders or anyone they may want to face and say they care about diversity."

By staying, the CEOs theoretically got one-on-one face time with Trump and the opportunity to make the case for their own business and political interests. And of course there's the prestige factor. Or they may see serving the president, whatever they think of him, as their patriotic duty, as Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has said.

"There's always an upside to participating in a White House council," said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Brookings Institution think tank. "You get access to decision makers, access to the President. These are coveted slots that people like because they can try and get their point of view across about things that affect their industry."

One other mitigating factor may be that a single tweet from the president directed at a company can temporarily ding stock prices and inspire a magnifying storm of angry tweets from his followers, along with unwanted follow-up news coverage.

After Merck CEO Ken Frazier announced on Monday his decision to leave, the president immediately singled him out in a tweet, saying, "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

While it's not that unusual, historically speaking, for C-suite executives to clash with their commander-in-chief and for words to get heated, political observers say this time is different.

In 1907, trust-busting and pro-regulation President Theodore Roosevelt spoke against overreaching businesses, calling them "malefactors of great wealth." After Roosevelt's term ended and he was on an African hunting safari, banking magnate J.P. Morgan quipped, “Let every lion do his duty.”

Later, President John F. Kennedy, concerned over inflation, jawboned the steel companies after they hiked prices, saying, "My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches." One steel magnate retorted that "higher steel prices cause inflation like wet streets cause rain." Ultimately the industry retracted some of its price increases.

So while there are disagreements, "Usually it's over business issues," said Richard Sylla, a professor of economics at the New York University Stern School of Business. But here, "the business leaders are taking a moral stance on fundamental American issues."

Business leaders have to weigh these upsides against the prospect of employee and customer backlash against being associated with a polarizing president. On Tuesday afternoon, #QuitTheCouncil started trending on Twitter as customers began using it to pressure companies into leaving the advisory groups.

Trump’s main advisory council was created in December last year, before he took office, and met for the first time in February with the goal of offering help to further job creation. Council chair Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone said at the time that one of the group’s purposes was to “de-bottleneck some things.”

That initial White House meeting was led by President Trump and included JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Walt Disney’s Bob Iger, Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon, Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, and Mary Barra of General Motors. Vice President Mike Pence and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner also attended.

Following that session, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, gushed about the president’s engagement and even termed it “a fabulous meeting.” The executives around the table were reportedly dispatched with homework and asked to report at a later date.

Since then, though, Kamarck said the companies may have contributed to discussions on getting rid of regulation, but besides the February meeting the group had accomplished "nothing substantive."

Levick had a bit of PR advice for the president: "It's time to disband the councils."

CORRECTION (3:10 p.m., Aug. 15): A previous version of this article misidentified the president who first said businesses were "malefactors of great wealth." The phrase was first used by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907, not Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1930s. (FDR used the line when quoting his fifth cousin Theodore.) The article also misidentified the Roosevelt who was the target of J.P. Morgan’s ire. It was Theodore, not Franklin.</s>How did President Trump’s two business advisory councils fall apart so quickly?

It started with one CEO standing up to Trump. The rest soon followed him out the door.

After a group of white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, killing a counter-protester, President Trump delivered controversial remarks the next day.

His speech drew widespread criticism. Many faulted him for his late response and for not denouncing the white supremacists by name.

–8 a.m. ET: Merck CEO Ken Frazier, one of very few black Fortune 500 CEOs, took the first step. He stepped down from President Trump’s manufacturing council, saying “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.”

–8:54 a.m.: Trump tweets that Frazier will now “have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”

–1 p.m.: The president delivers a speech in which he calls the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists ‘repugnant.’

–11:37 a.m.: Scott Paul, president of Alliance for American Manufacturing, resigns.

–On Tuesday afternoon, Trump gave a news conference inside Trump Tower. Trump reiterated his earlier position on the weekend saying: “I think there is blame on both sides.”

–5:45 p.m.: Richard Trumka, president of the labor group AFL-CIO and Thea Lee, economist at the AFL-CIO, resign.

–1:14 p.m.: Trump tweets, announcing he was dissolving both the manufacturing council and economic advisory council: “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!”

–1:20 p.m.: United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes puts out a statement, explaining his exit from the manufacturing council.

–1:30 p.m.: Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson releases a statement about why he resigned.

–2 p.m.: General Electric’s Jeff Immelt issues a statement on his decision to leave the council.</s>With a string of executives leaving his manufacturing council in the wake of President Trump's controversial remarks about white supremacists, the president is disbanding the group he created in January. Trump said he's also ending his Strategic and Policy Forum, which he formed in December.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!" President Trump said in a tweet.

The move came shortly after two executives — 3M's Inge Thulin and Campbell Soup's Denise Morrison — said on Wednesday that they would be leaving the manufacturing council established by Trump, who has long touted the need to support American manufacturing jobs.

"Racism and murder are unequivocally reprehensible and are not morally equivalent to anything else that happened in Charlottesville", Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison stated, referring to Trump's much-criticized response to the white supremacist rally that resulted in the death of a counter-protester over the weekend.

3M President and CEO Inge Thulin said his decision to leave the group followed reflection on the values of "sustainability, diversity and inclusion."

The moves came one day after the resignations of Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing; Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO; and Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO's deputy chief of staff.

"I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do," Paul wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning.

Earlier this week, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, Under Armour's Kevin Plank and Intel's Brian Krzanich left the council that was set up by the president's Manufacturing Jobs Initiative.

Over the summer, Tesla founder Elon Musk left both the manufacturing council and the presidential Strategic and Policy Forum, having announced in June that he disagreed with Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

Like Musk, Disney CEO Bob Iger resigned from the president's Strategic and Policy Forum over Trump's climate policy. Others who left the group include former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who cited Trump's executive order on immigration.

Trump's decision to wind down the two groups comes after he struck a defiant tone about the resignations earlier this week, as criticism swirled around his comments that "both sides" were at fault in Charlottesville.

On Monday, Trump said, "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

On Tuesday, Trump stated, "For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!"

When the council was formed back in January, the White House said the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative would allow the president to meet with "some of the world's most successful and creative business leaders to share their experiences and gain their insights."</s>TRENTON, N.J. -- The CEOs of athletic wear manufacturer Under Armour, computer chip maker Intel and pharmaceutical company Merck resigned Monday from the White House's American Manufacturing Council -- with the Merck withdrawal drawing a quick and angry Twitter outburst from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier cited the president's failure to explicitly rebuke the white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. He wrote on Twitter Monday that "America's leaders must honour our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which runs counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal."

Frazier is one of the few African-Americans to head a Fortune 500 company.

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank resigned from the panel later Monday, saying his company "engages in innovation and sports, not politics." Plank did not specifically mention Trump or Charlottesville, but said his company will focus on promoting "unity, diversity and inclusion" through sports.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich followed, writing that while he had urged leaders to condemn "white supremacists and their ilk," many in Washington "seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them."

Trump was under increasing pressure to call out the white supremacist groups involved in the Charlottesville demonstration. He lashed out almost immediately at Frazier, saying on Twitter that he will now "have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"

The president followed up later in the day, tweeting that Merck "is a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S. Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!"

Drugmakers have come under withering criticism for soaring prices in the U.S., including by Trump, though he has yet to act on a promise to contain them.

With the barbs, Trump appeared to attack an industry executive who has tried to make drug pricing somewhat more transparent by revealing his company's overall drug price changes.

In January, Merck reported that its average net prices -- the amount the company receives after discounts and other rebates -- increased in the years since 2010 in a range between 3.4 per cent and 6.2 per cent per year. That's about half as large as the increase in its retail prices. Much of the furor over drug prices recently has been over increases that have been far bigger and come one after another for drugs that have been on the market for years.

The exchange lit up social media early Monday, with many people lauding Frazier and blasting the president. Trump eventually made a statement condemning bigotry Monday afternoon at a press conference.

Meanwhile, other executives stated their support for Frazier.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman wrote on Twitter, "Thanks @Merck Ken Frazier for strong leadership to stand up for the moral values that made this country what it is."

Frazier, who grew up in a poor neighbourhood in Philadelphia, resigned from the manufacturing advisory council days after one person was killed and others wounded in violent clashes between white supremacists and protesters.

Frazier and his siblings were raised by their janitor father after their mother died when they were very young. He has earned a reputation as a risk taker in the drug industry, pouring money into daunting research areas, particularly trying to develop a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Frazier is not the first executive to resign from advisory councils serving Trump.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk resigned from the manufacturing council in June, and two other advisory groups to the president, after the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Walt Disney Co. Chairman and CEO Bob Iger resigned for the same reason from the President's Strategic and Policy Forum, which Trump established to advise him on how government policy impacts economic growth and job creation.

The manufacturing jobs council had 28 members initially, but it has shrunk since it was formed earlier this year as executives retire, are replaced, or, as with Frazier and Musk, resign.

William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said he couldn't "think of a parallel example" of any president responding as viciously as Trump to a CEO departing an advisory council.

"Usually, certain niceties are observed to smooth over a rupture," said Galston, who served as a domestic policy aide in the Clinton administration.

"We've learned that as president, Mr. Trump is behaving exactly as he did as a candidate," Galston said. "He knows only one mode: When attacked, hit back harder."

AP Economics Writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this story
Alliance for American Manufacturing president Scott Paul, AFL–CIO president Richard Trumka and the union's former chief of staff Thea Lee resign from President Trump's American Manufacturing Council due to their disagreements with Trump's response to the rally. The three corporate executives join Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, who also resigned from the council in protest the day prior.