In a move that has been condemned by many in the business and political world but welcomed by the media and political left, Merck Chairman and CEO Kenneth C. Frazier announced his resignation from President Trump’s American Manufacturing Advisory Council on Monday as a “matter of personal conscience.”
So far, he is the only Executive to leave the Trump Advisory council.
President Trump meeting with manufacturing executives at the White House in February 2017. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier is next (R) to the President. Credit: Avan Vucci/AP
The top executive at the major phamaceutical company decided to quit because apparently, he didn’t like President Trump’s response to the Charlottesville violence over the weekend where one person died and 20 others injured after a car plowed into protesters.
Kenneth Frazier, one of America’s most prominent Black CEOs said in a written statement released Monday on Twitter by his company that he was “resigning from the President’s American Manufacturing Council as a matter of personal conscience.”
Although the Merck CEO did not mention the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia or Trump by name in his statement, he did, however, state that “as a matter of personal conscience, I feel responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.”
President Trump’s tweet after Kenneth Frazier announced his resignation. Credit: Twitter
That statement appeared to be a reference to President Trump’s first statement in response to the violence in Charlottesville over the weekend which, Frazier, like other Trump critics, felt it did not go far enough to condemn White Nationalists, Neo-Nazis and KKK while ignoring other groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa.
Trump, known for his quick response on Twitter did not waste time to point out to Frazier that his resignation would give him “more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”
The President later on Monday doubled down on his criticism of the pharmaceutical company calling Merck “a leader in higher & higher drug prices while at the same time taking jobs out of the U.S.”
Another Tweet from the President on the pharmaceutical company, Merck. Credit: Twitter
Merck is one of the companies that partnered with the White House in its initiative to manufacture pharmaceutical glass packaging locally within United States. It is one of the companies which Trump alluded to when he said the partnership between Merck, Pfizer and Corning would “create thousands of American manufacturing jobs.”
Frazier’s resignation received wide condemnation by many in the business and political world who believe that his presence and participation in the Advisory Council would have been an opportunity for him to contribute to meaningful change through policy. His resignation is thus seen as a great loss for any chance to initiate change from within.
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