Seven business leaders have quit President Trump’s advisory councils since the weekend. And a group of protestors hope that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman will be next.
On Tuesday, a collection of New York-based advocacy groups plan to march to the Manhattan headquarters of both JPMorgan and Blackstone to deliver petitions with 400,000 signatures asking both executives to cut ties with the White House.
Schwarzman and Dimon both serve on Trump’s economic advisory panel. Schwarzman chairs the group, formally known as the Strategic and Policy Forum.
“We’re standing up because corporate leaders have a responsibility to show Trump that his values are not American values, and that hate and racism have no place in this country. We will only continue to get louder until they do,” said a spokesperson for the Center for Popular Democracy, one of the organizing groups.
Both Schwarzman and Dimon have issued statements condemning a rally of white supremacists that turned deadly in Charlottesville on Saturday. But neither explicitly mentioned his role on the council.
“The racist behavior on display by these perpetrators of hate should be condemned and has no place in a country that draws strength from our diversity and humanity,” Dimon said in a statement.
Schwartzman put out similar remarks.
“Bigotry, hatred and extremism are an affront to core American values and have no place in this country,” he said. “I am deeply saddened and troubled by the tragic events in Charlottesville.”
Since the weekend, a growing number of business leaders have resigned from another Trump advisory council, the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative, to protest the president’s response. Trump has repeatedly said the violence in Charlottesville was perpetrated by “many sides,” and initially failed to specifically condemn the white supremacists who organized the Virginia march.
Neither Blackstone nor JPMorgan responded to a request for comment Wednesday.
One of the organizations involved in Wednesday’s action at Blackstone and JPMorgan, Color of Change, has launched a broader campaign called #QuitTheCouncil, which is pushing the executives who sit on Trump’s job councils to resign in the wake of the president’s response to Charlottesville.
In particular, it’s putting pressure on PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, who sits with Schwarzman and Dimon on the Strategic and Policy Forum.
Some of the organizing groups — including Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change and the Center for Popular Democracy — are part of a wider progressive initiative called “Corporate Backers of Hate.” The campaign targets businesses that it says “stand to profit from Trump’s hateful agenda.”
The effort has also singled out companies like IBM, whose CEO Ginni Rometty serves on Trump’s business council, and Disney, which has subcontractors that allegedly violate workers’ rights.
