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- In the wake of President Donald Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, many CEOs resigned from positions on the White House's manufacturing and business councils.
- Trump attacked the CEOs and was ultimately forced to disband the two councils.
- According to Bob Woodward's new book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," GOP leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell contacted some of the departing CEOs and "privately praised them for standing up."
In the aftermath of President Donald Trump's disastrous response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Republican congressional leaders privately praised CEOs quitting the president's business councils, according to Bob Woodward's explosive new book.
Trump held a now-infamous press conference during which he appeared to equivocate white nationalists with counter-protesters. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier quit the White House's council of manufacturing leaders. A cascade of executives soon followed in exiting from the manufacturing council, including Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
Trump attacked Frazier and the other departing CEOs. But the cascade of departures eventually forced Trump to scrap both the manufacturing council and a separate business council that included JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.
According to Woodward's book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," the business reaction also caused a break among GOP leadership.
"Most significant, however, were the private reactions from House Speaker Ryan and Senate majority leader McConnell. Both Republicans called some of the CEOs and privately praised them for standing up," Woodward wrote.
While both Ryan and McConnell condemned Trump's response to the Charlottesville violence, neither weighed in on the departures of the executives at the time.
A spokesperson for Ryan declined to comment. A spokesperson for McConnell also declined to comment, saying they hadn't seen or read the book.
Both GOP leaders declined to answer questions about the specifics of the book during press conferences last week, but did say they had not spoken to Woodward.
Business Insider obtained a copy of the book, which is being published by Simon & Schuster and is set for release on Tuesday.
The White House has attacked the contents of "Fear," calling the book "nothing more than fabricated stories."
Here are more revelations from the book so far:
- Trump hits back at bombshell Bob Woodward book, calls it 'just another bad book' and claims Woodward has 'had a lot of credibility problems'
- Woodward's book reportedly spurred Trump to look to replace Mattis - here's who's at the top of that list
- 'It's either that or an orange jumpsuit': Explosive Bob Woodward book reportedly recounts Trump's lawyer's effort to keep him from interviewing with Mueller
- Trump denied calling Jeff Sessions - or anyone - 'mentally retarded,' but old records show he has
- Ivanka Trump and Steve Bannon reportedly clashed over proper White House protocol, and she told him 'I'm not a staffer! ... I'm the first daughter'
- Trump reportedly told Mattis that he wanted to assassinate Bashar al-Assad after his chemical weapons attack on Syrians last year
- Gary Cohn reportedly snatched documents off Trump's desk to prevent him from wrecking 2 massive trade deals
- John Kelly was reportedly enraged with Trump over his handling of Charlottesville, said he would have taken a resignation letter 'and shoved it up his ass 6 different times'
- Trump has reportedly said that his speech after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville was the 'biggest f---ing mistake' he's made
- 6 alarming passages from Bob Woodward's book show Trump's inability to properly lead the military
- Trump thanks Kim Jong Un for 'unwavering faith' with his own White House in open mutiny
- Trump reportedly went to extraordinary and unusual lengths to console grieving military families