AFL-CIO Chief Joins Exodus From Manufacturing Council After Bonkers Donald Trump Presser

UPDATED with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s resignation: Add AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka to the list of bigwigs who have stepped down from President Donald Trump’s American Manufacturing Council to protest his much derided response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trumka’s resignation came after Trump’s bonkers Tuesday news conference, in which he tossed out Monday’s do-over statement and returned to his original both-sides-at-fault position on the weekend of violence.

“We cannot sit on a council for a President who tolerates Bigotry and domestic terrorism,” Trumka said in his statement. “President Trump’s remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis. We must resign on behalf of America’s working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of those bigoted groups.”

PREVIOUS: Donald Trump threw another Twitter tantrum this morning as a growing number of CEOs resign from his American Manufacturing Council.

The latest resignation came minutes after Trump scoffed that anyone who quits the council is replaceable – continuing an exodus that began Monday when Merck Pharmaceuticals chairman/CEO Kenneth Frazier announced he was stepping down from the council in protest of Trump’s much derided initial response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, VA over the weekend.

“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 in a statement. He is the only African American CEO of a major pharmaceutical company.

“For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place,” Trump boasted by Twitter, scowling, “Grandstanders should not have gone on” the council in the first place.

“JOBS!” Trump concluded:

Frazier’s exit was followed hours later by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. This morning, Alliance for American Manufacturing president Scott Paul became No. 4: