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NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 15: US President Donald Trump speaks following a meeting on infrastructure at Trump Tower, August 15, 2017 in New York City. He fielded questions from reporters about his comments on the events in Charlottesville, Virginia and white supremacists. (Drew Angerer Getty Images

During his campaign for president, Donald Trump boasted of business prowess, vowing to bring in top executives to help him revive the economy and to personally lobby corporate chiefs to keep jobs in the U.S.

Those CEOs are now abandoning him in a humiliating snub for a president who took great pleasure in summoning corporate titans to the White House and trying to get them to bend to his will.

After widespread criticism for remarks that appeared to confer legitimacy on white supremacists, Trump is facing a mass exodus of the CEOs he once courted, a public repudiation that undermines his image as a businessman and could threaten his policy agenda on everything from taxes to trade.

Trump said Wednesday hes disbanding two advisory groups of American business leaders, after several CEOs quit this week and more were preparing to resign in the wake of his comments that some very fine people were among neo-Nazis protesting at a violent rally in Charlottesville last weekend.

The weeks events threaten to forever tarnish Trumps credentials as a business president, undermining a foundation of his political appeal and weakening the Republican partys core alliance with business interests for as long as he leads the party. The political damage compounds the risk the GOP faces in 2018 midterm elections.

Corporate executives are now making a pragmatic calculation that a Republican presidents brand has become too toxic, said Carlos Gutierrez, chairman of Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington international strategy firm that advises businesses.

Theres always the risk that CEOs will not have their brand associated with administration initiatives, which is extremely dangerous for the presidents agenda, said Gutierrez, who served as Commerce Secretary under President George W. Bush. The president will need the business community but the business community would rather stay out of the White House.

On Thursday, the Cleveland Clinic announced that after careful consideration, it wouldnt hold its annual fundraiser at Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2018. The clinics board had been under pressure after almost 1,700 medical students, doctors, nurses and others criticized its use of Mar-a-Lago in an open letter last month. Holding a hospital fundraiser there symbolically and financially supports a politician actively working to decrease access to health care and cut billions of dollars in research funding, the letter said.

Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove had served on the Presidents Strategic and Policy Forum before Trump disbanded it.

Trump opened his presidency highlighting his relationships with titans of industry, regularly bringing in camera crews and reporters to show the nation a president leading discussions that included some of the best-known names in business. The American Manufacturing Council and Strategic and Policy Forum, both disbanded Wednesday, were each heavily promoted during the first days of his presidency, as the White House sought to show its focus on boosting the economy.

Business leaders would often flank the president in the Oval Office as he signed legislation and announced new orders.

With the Republican party in control of the White House, and both houses of Congress, the constant stream of business executives visiting the West Wing was presented by the White House as evidence that Trumps agenda for boosting the economy was in full swing.

Now, as Congress has struggled to pass legislation during the Trump era, the chaos surrounding the White House has served to further undermine Republicans image in the eyes of a risk-averse business community, according to strategists and experts.

Graham Wilson, a Boston University professor who studies the intersection of business and politics, said the scale and depth of feeling in opposition to Trumps statements is too large for executives to ignore.

Standing with Trump at this moment, after his bizarre comments, is just too costly for corporations, Wilson said. This signal from corporate America could also have a broader impact on public opinion and the loyalty of core Republicans to Trump.

Some business-oriented Republicans who had been swallowing very hard over some of Trumps stranger statements now may break away, Wilson said.

Republican officeholders must not just condemn the violence by white-supremacist groups, they must repudiate the position Trump has taken or slide into the moral abyss with him, said Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who was a top adviser for 2008 presidential nominee John McCain.

Republicans who believe that the possibility of tax reform outweighs the urgent civic necessity of condemning white supremacy extremism and Nazism are as morally obtuse as Trump and are likely to pay a very steep political price, he said.

The public spat between Trump and CEOs comes as the White House and the Republican-led Congress are looking to advance an overhaul of the tax code.

I dont see any business thats going to want to partner with the president on an initiative, said Leslie Dach, a strategic communications consultant in Washington. Because the chance of it bringing them grief is large and the short-term upside is slim.

Even before the controversy surrounding his statements about the events in Charlottesville and the collapse of the economic council, Trumps standing in Gallups daily tracking poll was already near an all-time low for his presidency. Just 36 percent of Americans said they approve of the job hes doing, while 58 percent disapprove, in the poll taken Aug. 13-15.

Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser to Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign, said all is not lost for Trump and his relations with corporate America.

The community still has an interest in collaborating on an economic agenda, but they are certainly sending a message, Madden said. This is a different era, where businesses and CEOs are as focused on communicating their companys values in addition to caring about their bottom line.

To the extent businesses back Trump initiatives, it is now more likely to be transactional: one-time support for specific policies that directly help them. Conversely, Trump, who has pushed policies on immigration and trade that are unpopular in the business community, could also see more executives willing to speak out against him when they disagree with his agenda, said Gutierrez.

Businesses had been somewhat reluctant--they dont want to be on the wrong side of the administration, they dont want to be the subject of a tweet, he said. I think that that is quickly fading away."

The blow up may be a sign of things to come. The reality is that the capital has become more challenging terrain for corporate leaders, who take great pains to stay away from controversy, as populists squeeze out pro-business moderates in both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Washington, whether it is on the right or the left, is a risky place right now, said Sam Geduldig, a former Republican congressional aide and now a partner at CGCN Group, a lobbying firm. It is not a place for the weak or the timid.

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Trump's Pro-Business Image Tarnished as CEOs Abandon Him - Fortune

BERLIN There is only one side the good side, cried Eva Kese, mustering a smile as she fought back tears. Your hate has no place here.

Kese, 30,stood Saturday facing a crowd ofabout 500neo-Nazis. They were gathered on the outskirts of the German capital to commemoratethe 30thanniversary of the death of Rudolf Hess, a deputy to Adolf Hitler. The demonstration marked another, more recent anniversary: one week since a march by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Virginia left one counterprotester dead.

Keseheld up a sign with a hand-drawn pink heart to the neo-Nazis, who countered with a giant banner of their own, reading, I regret nothing.

Choosing her words carefully, she repeated:There is only one side.

President Trump, she said, had drawn her to the streets of the German capital to counter the demonstration. She was incensed by his reaction to the violence in Charlottesville last weekend, in which he blamedhatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.

Donald Trump brought me here today, said Kese, a mother of two who was born in Germany. You can't stand for an ideology that says one side is inferior.

The rally in Berlin was planned before global attention turned to Charlottesville, but it took on new meaning after a week dominated by discussion of the Nazi past.Counterprotesters said they felt new urgency to denounce Germany's dark history particularly in the former capital of the Third Reich after watching it reemerge like a phantomandhauntan American college town.

It's dangerous everywhere, not just in Germany, said Sabine Sauer, 55.

[We have drawn a different lesson from history: How the world is reacting to violence in Charlottesville]

Among the crowd of neo-Nazis, most of whom declined to be interviewed, an elderly man with glasses and a button-down shirt under a white T-shirt said he had been watching events in the United States with delight.

They're finally standing up, said the man, who declined to give his name as other members of the crowd encircled him, preventing him from speaking further. Refusing media interviews was among the directives issued to demonstrators by organizers of the march, German media reported.

Scuffles broke out between neo-Nazis and counterprotesters in Berlin on Aug. 19 during a planned march to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of Hitler's first deputy, Rudolf Hess. (Twitter/MartinAdam via Storyful)

The guidelines for the march stipulated by authorities were also extensive and made for a scene starkly at odds with the violent confrontation in Charlottesville. Speech is more strictly policed in Germany than it is in the United States, in large part to keep Nazi ideology at bay.

Followingstrict laws put into place after World War II,demonstratorswere forbidden from chanting Nazi slogans, displaying swastikas and wearing certain military uniforms. They couldn't carry weapons.

Torches were also forbidden, an organizer announced before the march, and only one flag was allowed for every 50 people.

The Hess apologistswere restricted in how they could talk about the prominent Nazi politician, who was convicted of crimes against peace after the war. They were barred from quoting him or playing his speeches.

The destination of the march was the former site of Spandau Prison, where Hess committed suicide in 1987. Soon after, it was demolished ground to powder that was scattered in the North Sea to prevent it from becoming a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.

That didn't stop it from being the focusof Saturday's march, whose participants advancethe conspiracy theory that Hess was killed covertly by the British.

But the neo-Nazis never reached the location of the former prison. They proceeded haltingly, flanked by police who kept counterprotesters behind metal barricades. The neo-Nazisremainedmostly quiet, carrying the black, white and red flags of the German Empire.

Nazis out, counterprotestersshouted, as a large crowdmoved to block the road.

After a two-hour stalemate, in which opposing sides were separated by a 30-yard no man's land guarded by police, authorities led the neo-Nazis away from their intended destination, down a side street and back around to the transit station where they had begun.

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'Donald Trump brought me here today': Counterprotesters rout neo-Nazi rally in Berlin - Washington Post

President Donald Trump is coming off his worst week in the White House that is, if youre not counting at least the nine other weeks since his January inauguration when the media has also declared the Republican to have hit rock bottom.

The worst week clich has its reasons: this time its Trumps controversial response to violent white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. But for the reporters and political analysts who make their living covering Trump, theres always something (or many things) to merit such a categorical description for such a chaotic president.

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Its a subjective measurement by any definition. Nonetheless, heres a POLITICO review of the 10 weeks (out of 30 so far) where journalists have dubbed Trump as having his worst week in office.

1. August 14-20

What happened: Trump started the week condemning the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists for the fatal violence in Charlottesville but then reversed course and doubled down on his earlier argument that many sides were to blame for the weekends events spinning out of control. Republicans and Democrats alike criticized him, as did corporate leaders who forced the White House to shutter several of its business advisory panels. White House senior adviser Steve Bannon was fired.

Who called it: NBC reporters including Meet the Press host Chuck Todd wrote that the president is more isolated than ever after worst week yet and that was hours before the news broke that Bannon was ousted. FOX News Bret Baier said that Bannons departure made it clearly the worst week yet. ABC News political analyst Matt Dowd had this to say of the Bannon news, Worst blow so far of his presidency, coming at the tail end of probably his worst week as president. MSNBC, meantime, noted the number of times the worst week description had been used in recent weeks and made a comparison to a scene from the 1999 film, Office Space.

2. August 7-13

What happened: The Charlottesville melee was in its first 24 hours when Trump gave his first stumbling response, blaming many sides for the violence. He improvised on the nuclear threat from North Korea, warning that the country would face fire and fury if it attacked the U.S. or its allies. Speaking from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club where he was on a working vacation, the president told reporters a military operation, a military option, is certainly something we could pursue in Venezuela. He also jokingly thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for booting more than 750 U.S. diplomats from Russia. Trump carried on a feud with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for not passing an Obamacare repeal bill.

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Who called it: Helene Cooper, a Pentagon correspondent for the New York Times, said on Meet the Press in the immediate aftermath of Charlottesville that Trump may have just had his worst week because hes not been able to detach himself from these white supremacists who got him elected and who he has put in his government and in the White House. She also called him out for his North Korea response. Max Boot, writing for Foreign Policy, called Trump the WWE president as in the "worst week ever" adding, "that has become even more of a leitmotif for his administration.

3. July 24-30

What happened: The Senate by one vote killed a Republican bill to repeal Obamacare. The military was caught unprepared when Trump tweeted out his plans to ban transgender troops. The Boy Scouts of America apologized after Trump gave an explicitly political speech at their annual jamboree. Trump publicly humiliated Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Senate Republicans came to Sessions' defense. White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci gave a scathing, expletive-laden interview to the New Yorker criticizing Bannon and then Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. Priebus was fired and John Kelly was named as his replacement.

Who called it: Washington Post opinion writer Kathleen Parker opened a column this way, Donald Trump had his worst day since he was elected president well just call it Friday and his worst week since the last one. In the same newspaper, Charles Krauthammer pointed out the checks and balances that had pushed back at Trump, noting his worst week proved a particularly fine hour for American democracy. Dowd, appearing on ABCs Good Morning America, said Kelly began as chief of staff probably after the worst week of Donald Trumps presidency. The Australian Financial Review reported that Trump faced skepticism in Washington that he can recover from arguably his work week on Capitol Hill.

4. July 10-16

What happened: The New York Times over several days reported on a June 2016 meeting between Trumps oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., senior campaign aides, and a Kremlin-linked lawyer who had promised them dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Who called it: Times reporters Mark Landler and Maggie Haberman described Trump as being in a buoyant mood during a visit to the press cabin on Air Force One, following a quick trip to Paris that came while he was suffering one of the worst weeks of his political career.

5. June 12-18

What happened: The Washington Post reported that special counsel Robert Mueller had expanded his investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election into an examination of whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice. Trump himself seemed to confirm the news on Twitter, with a Friday morning missive that launched a wave of speculation he may be getting ready to order the firing of Mueller: I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt.

Who called it: CNNs Chris Cillizza, author of a weekly column awarding an unlucky pol for having the worst week in Washington, bestowed the honor on the president. Donald Trump hasnt had a lot of good weeks since being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. But this was his worst one yet, he wrote. This was the week the investigation of Russias involvement in the 2016 election reached the Oval Office and Trump himself.

6. June 5-11

What happened: The cable networks go wall-to-wall with coverage of former FBI Director James Comey testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he confirmed reports the president demanded his loyalty and pressured him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Who called it: The Daily Show had some fun with this one. Opening his Monday broadcast with a look back at the Comey hearing, Trevor Noah, the Comedy Central host said, Last week was probably one of the worst weeks of Donald Trumps presidency, which, by the way, is something we say every week now. Yeah. Trumps presidency is basically like global warming. Every week is the worst week on record, and the Republicans are also trying hard to deny it.

7. May 15-21

What happened: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to investigate Trump campaign ties to Russian tampering in the 2016 election. The New York Times reported Trump told Russian officials visiting him in the Oval Office that Comey was a real nut job. The Washington Post published an article saying a senior White House official had become a significant person of interest in the Russia investigation. Sen. John McCain said the Trump scandals had reached a Watergate size and scale. On Twitter, Trump fired back, This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!

Who called it: Reporters outside the U.S. pinpointed Trumps troubles, with a Toronto Star columnist noting before the week was even over: At the midway point of Trumps worst week in office and thats saying something his travelling band of surrogates, liars, bootlickers, enablers, brown-nosers and excuse-makers are in quite a bind. A Canberra Times editorial in Australia also jumped into the action by suggesting Trumps witch hunt tweet could even be seen as a successful attempt to divert attention away from his worst week since entering the White House. Back in the U.S., a CNN report with Jake Tapper sharing the byline said Trumps tweets appeared to be an attempt by staff to calm the raging political storm over Russia which has resulted in Trumps worst week in office so far. Reuters, meantime, went with this headline to sum up the weeks news: Donald Trumps Worst Week as President?

8. May 8-14

What happened: Trump fired Comey on a Tuesday, citing recommendations from Rosenstein and Sessions. He sat down for an NBC interview on Thursday with Lester Holt and said hed already made up his mind to fire Comey regardless of recommendation from the DOJ officials. Trump started his Friday on Twitter by posting: James Comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

Who called it: Republican strategist Ed Rollins on one of FOX News Sunday morning shows called for some deep thinking in this White House, and added, This was the worst week, I think, this president has had, and its all self-inflicted. Cillizza, meantime, awarded Trump the worst week in Washington honor for all-things Comey.

9. March 20-26

What happened: Comey, appearing before the House Intelligence Committee, confirmed for the first time publicly that the FBI has an open investigation into potential Trump campaign collusion with Russia during the 2016 election. In a major defeat, House Republicans dropped plans for a floor vote on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Who called it: ABCs George Stephanopoulos opened his Sunday show this way, And for all of you who had a rough week, just think about how President Trump must feel after the worst week of his young presidency.

10. February 13-19

What happened: It was a messy Valentines Day in Trump land. The president fired Flynn amid a spate of media reports hed had undisclosed conversations with Russias ambassador during the transition and misled Vice President Mike Pence in the process. The New York Times reported about phone records and intercepted calls suggesting Trumps campaign and his associates had made repeated contacts with senior Russian officials. Two days later, the Wall Street Journal published an article that U.S. intelligence officials were holding back sensitive material from Trump because of concern about leaks.

Who called it: Teasing a video about the news of the week, the U.S. News and World Report declared Trump has just endured his worst week in Washington yet and asked who was is in charge of his White House. Over at the Miami Herald, columnist Fabiola Santiago took note of Cuban-Americans in Congress who were silent about Trumps Russiagate. The headline: On his worst week in office, Trump gets a boost from Cuban-American pals in Congress.

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Trump just had his 'worst week' again - Politico

Susan Bro, whose daughter Heather Heyer was killed by a car at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, says she wont be speaking to President Donald Trump.

I have not [spoken to Trump], and now I will not, Bro said on ABCs Good Morning America Friday.

Bro said the White House tried to reach out to her multiple times the day of her daughters funeral, and she simply missed the calls.But after seeing video of Trumps Tuesday press conference, during which he defended white supremacists and railed against counterprotesters, Bro said she doesnt wish to speak to him.

I hadnt really watched the news until last night, and Im not talking to the president now, she said. Im sorry. After what he said about my child, and, its not that I saw somebody elses tweets about him, I saw an actual clip of him at a press conference equating the protesters like Ms. Heyer with the KKK and the white supremacists.

During hisremarks Tuesday, Trump argued both sides in Charlottesville were responsible for violence.

You had a group on one side who was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent, and nobody wants to say that, but Ill say it right now, Trump said before also commenting that there were very fine people on both sides.

Bro said shes not forgiving Trump for the remarks.

You cant wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying Im sorry, Bro said.

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Susan Bro, Heather Heyer's Mom, Won't Speak To Donald Trump - HuffPost

Most business executives fumed and groused for the eight years Barack Obama was in the White House. He was a former community organizer who had never met a payroll, and those in the corporate boardrooms thought he was no friend of free enterprise.

In 2010, New York real estate and media tycoon Mortimer Zuckerman said Obamas demonization of business was discouraging investment and sapping job growth. Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Technology Association, called Obama the most anti-business president in my lifetime. Former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch implored the president, Stop it. You cant go industry by industry ...through intimidation, business by business by business.

As ordeals go, though, theirs was notably mild. The stock market soared, corporate profits nearly tripled and the unemployment rate declined to 4.8 percent from 7.8 percent. From the depths of the Great Recession, the economy began what is now the third-longest expansion on record. If making money was your goal, the Obama years were a good time to do it.

Now, instead of a liberal lawyer in the White House, CEOs have one of their own. And theyre finding its not everything they had hoped. The stock market and other economic indicators look about the same as they did before Donald Trump took office. In Obamas final six months, the economy added an average of nearly 181,000 jobs per month. In Trumps first six months, it added 179,000 per month. Gross domestic product growth has even slowed a bit.

More troublesome at the moment is Trumps insistence on defending Confederate monuments and stoking white racial resentments. In recent days, so many CEOs resigned from the presidents two business advisory councils that Trump closed them down. Some of the executives no doubt were genuinely upset at the presidents coddling of bigots and his inability to behave with a dignity befitting his office. Some were fearful of alienating customers who find Trump toxic.

Other business executives are edging away from the president as though he were an erratic panhandler, and for the same reason: Best not to be close to him if he flips out. You dont want to have to stand there in silent mortification, as White House chief of staff John Kelly had to do the other day, while the president makes a fool of himself on national TV. It would not be good for your company or your career.

But even before Trumps Charlottesville debacle, he was not covering himself with capitalist glory. His January travel ban order put him at odds with some 100 tech firms that sued to block it, arguing, It disrupts ongoing business operations. And it threatens companies ability to attract talent, business, and investment to the United States.

His decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord didnt go down well with many big companies, 25 of which had signed a letter urging him to stay in. Even oil giants Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips opposed the withdrawal. In abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, Trump spurned the recommendation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. His insistence on renegotiating NAFTA has the Big Three automakers worried about their supply chains.

A lot of executives applaud Trumps war on federal regulation. But what else has he done for them? His failures on Obamacare have generated uncertainty among insurance companies and health care providers. His sour relations with Congress make tax reform less plausible every day. Infrastructure is what he was supposed to focus on Tuesday when he appeared before reporters at Trump Tower. But he buried that issue by venting about Charlottesville.

Perhaps worst of all, he has been the arrogant bully that Jack Welch and others accused Obama of being. Trump slammed Boeing over the cost of Air Force One. He blasted Ford over a planned factory in Mexico. He has repeatedly attacked Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. He went after Nordstrom for dropping his daughters products. When Mercks Kenneth Frazier quit his manufacturing advisory group Monday, Trump flamed him for ripoff drug prices.

His recurring message is that any executive who doesnt do as Trump wishes can expect retribution from the most powerful man on Earth. Obama was not the friend CEOs think the president of the United States should be. But in Trump, theyre finding out what its like to have a real enemy.

Steve Chapman, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at http://www.chicagotribune.com/chapman.Download "Recalculating: Steve Chapman on a New Century" in the free Printers Row app at http://www.printersrowapp.com.schapman@chicagotribune.comTwitter @SteveChapman13

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Donald Trump, the anti-business president - Chicago Tribune