Three advisors have resigned in protest of Trump’s racism. He responded by only attacking the black one.
In the wake of the Charlottesville terrorist attack, Donald Trump spent two days timidly helping cement the popular notion that he’s a racist who relies on white supremacists as his core base. Monday was supposed to be the day in which he cleaned it all up, by finally giving the anti-racism speech that his staff wanted him to give in the first place. But then three CEOs resigned from Trump’s advisory council in protest of his racism, and his response also came off as racist.
Merck CEO Ken Frazier announced early on Monday morning that he was resigning from Donald Trump’s manufacturing advisory council in light of Trump’s failure to adequately condemn white supremacists. This led Trump to retaliate by hurling multiple vicious tweets at Frazier, several hours apart. But when Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank resigned later in the same day, citing similar reasons, Trump didn’t bother to attack him. And when Intel CEO Brian Krzanich became the third to resign from the council later on Monday, Trump was once again silent.
Frazier is African-American, while the other CEOs are white. So as it stands, three people resigned from Trump’s advisory council on Monday in protest of Trump’s racism, and Trump responded by only attacking the black guy. Was this merely because Frazier was the first of three to quit? Or was Trump trying to send a message of solidarity to his white supremacist base? Or perhaps Trump only attacked the black guy because that’s simply how his mind works.
But regardless, considering that all three CEOs resigned in protest of what they felt was Donald Trump’s racism, his response gives off the worst optics possible. For all we know he may end up attacking Plank and Krzanich on Twitter on Tuesday morning as well, just to give himself cover. But at this point Trump just keeps digging himself a deeper hole.
