New York: Merck & Co’s CEO quit President Donald Trump’s council of manufacturing executives Monday, saying “America’s leaders must honour our fundamental values” by rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy.
He was almost immediately attacked by Trump on Twitter.
Following a weekend of violence in Virginia involving white-supremacist groups that Trump has been criticised for not explicitly condemning, Merck Chief Executive Officer Ken Frazier said “as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.”
Less than an hour later, Trump tweeted in response, “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”
The council has included top executives from Boeing Co., Dow Chemical Co. and Johnson & Johnson. The move by Frazier — the latest CEO to quit the groups — comes after a weekend of violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in one death.
Trump, over the weekend, said “many sides” bore blame for the violence, though has so far not directly criticised the supremacist groups that were protesting the removal of a statue of the confederate war general Robert E. Lee. On Saturday, a man drove a Dodge Charger into a group of counter-demonstrators, killing a woman.
Social issues
Frazier is a black CEO — a rarity in large American corporations — and Merck has in the past taken stands on social issues. In 2012, the Kenilworth, New Jersey-based company’s foundation ended funding for the Boy Scouts of America over the group’s exclusion of gays from its leadership ranks. Frazier is a registered Democrat, according to Pennsylvania voter records.
Trump created two CEO advisory groups early in his presidency. Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman leads one described as a strategy and policy forum, and Dow Chemical Co.’s Andrew Liveris organised a manufacturing initiative. After an initial burst of activity and press attention, the councils have fizzled with neither meeting since April.
Other chief executives have also stepped down from the various business-advisory groups. Earlier this year, Elon Musk of Tesla Inc. and Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger quit the strategy and policy panel after Trump withdrew from the Paris climate pact. Former Uber Technologies Inc CEO Travis Kalanick quit in February after Trump’s executive order on immigration.
Trump made US drug prices an issue during the presidential campaign and after — at one point accusing drug companies of “getting away with murder.” While his rhetoric on the subject has cooled, the Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to try and bring more competition to the market for some drugs, and speed more generic drugs to the market.
