NEW YORK (AP) — With corporate chieftains fleeing, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he is ending a pair of advisory business councils in the latest fallout over his remarks about the Charlottesville protests. The White House says in a statement Thursday that the infrastructure council, which was still being formed, “will not move forward.”

The administration said Wednesday it was ending two other advisory councils made up primarily of business leaders, the Manufacturing Council and the Strategy & Policy Forum. Thank you all!” Trump tweeted in a face-saving effort from his home at Trump Tower. He was to depart New York later Wednesday to return to his New Jersey golf club. The move comes a day after Trump disbanded two other councils -- the Manufacturing Council and the Strategy & Policy Forum -- after business leaders, CEOs and union leaders began fleeing the groups in response to the President blaming "both sides" for violence in Charlottesville, Virginia . The resignations accelerated after he re-emphasized his earlier remarks and on Tuesday blamed “both sides” for the series of events that led to the death of a 32-year-old Charlottesville woman. Standing in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday, Trump acknowledged that there were “some very bad people” among those who gathered to protest Saturday. But he added: “You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”

Trump’s remarks were widely criticized in Washington and around the country.
President Donald Trump has ended his planned Presidential Advisory Council on Infrastructure after only a month, coming a day after two other advisory councils, the Strategic and Policy Forum and the American Manufacturing Council, were scrapped. No reason was given.