WASHINGTON — President Trump found himself increasingly isolated in a racial crisis of his own making on Wednesday, abandoned by the nation’s top business executives, contradicted by military leaders, and shunned by Republicans outraged by his defense of white nationalist protesters in Charlottesville, Va.
The breach with the business community was the most striking. Titans of American industry and finance revolted against a man they had seen as one of their own, concluding Wednesday morning they could no longer serve on two of Trump’s advisory panels.
But before Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of the Blackstone Group and one of Trump’s closest business confidants, could announce a decision to disband Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum — in a prepared statement calling “intolerance, racism and violence’’ an “affront to core American values’’ — the president undercut him and did it himself, in a tweet.
“Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both,’’ Trump wrote. “Thank you all!’’
Two additional chief executives — Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup and Inge Thulin of 3M — had announced Wednesday morning they would resign from the manufacturing council. And General Electric Co. chairman Jeff Immelt, who had previously resisted calls to step down even as other executives on the council publicly distanced themselves from Trump, resigned as well.
Immelt had argued previously that it was important to remain engaged with government officials on issues important to GE. But that changed after Trump’s remarks Tuesday afternoon, which Immelt said he found “deeply troubling.’’ He said he notified the committee he would no longer serve “given the ongoing tone of the discussion.’’
Immelt’s successor as CEO, John Flannery, sent a memo to GE employees Wednesday elaborating on the decision to quit the manufacturing council. Flannery said he and Immelt had consulted on the matter with “many leaders inside and outside the company,’’ and also discussed with other executives on the various presidential councils about disbanding those committees before Trump himself did so midday.
“In many world events, there can be ambiguities and shades of grey, but that is not the case in Charlottesville,’’ Flannery said in his memo. “Saturday’s march was an extremely offensive and disturbing display of hatred, bigotry and white supremacist views which ended tragically.’’
The condemnation descended on the president a day after he told reporters in a defiant news conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan that “alt-left’’ demonstrators were just as responsible for the violence in Charlottesville last weekend as the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who instigated protests that led to the death of a 32-year-old woman, struck down by a car driven by a right-wing activist.
All five armed services chiefs — of the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marines, and the Coast Guard — posted statements on social media condemning neo-Nazis and racism. They did not mention Trump by name, but their messages were a highly unusual counter to the commander in chief.
Vice President Mike Pence abruptly cut short a trip in South America as his aides announced he would return home early to attend meetings on Friday and through the weekend at Camp David. The White House insisted that the topic of the meetings would be South Asia. During his travels, Pence stood by the president but declined to defend Trump’s comments at Trump Tower on Tuesday that “both sides’’ in Charlottesville were to blame.
In a tweet on Wednesday night, Trump urged supporters to “join me’’ at a campaign rally scheduled for Aug. 22 in Phoenix. But the Phoenix mayor, Greg Stanton, said in his own tweet that he was “disappointed’’ that the president would hold a political event “as our nation is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville.’’ He urged Trump to delay the visit.
The president’s top advisers described themselves as stunned. Several said they were unable to see how Trump’s presidency recovered, and others expressed doubts about his capacity to do the job.
In contrast, the president told close aides that he felt liberated by his news conference. Aides said he seemed to bask afterward in his remarks, and viewed them as the latest retort to the political establishment that he sees as trying to tame his impulses.
Most incensed among Trump’s top advisers, according to three people familiar with the situation, was Gary D. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, who told people around him that he was offended, as a Jew and as an American, by the president’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville.
One aide who felt energized by the president’s actions was the embattled White House chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, who shares Trump’s anger at the efforts of local governments to remove monuments honoring prominent Confederate figures like Robert E. Lee. The proposed removal of a Lee statue on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville spurred the demonstrations last weekend.
Many in the White House said they still held on to the hope, however slim, that the White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, could impose order on the disarray even as Trump hopscotches from one self-destructive episode to the next.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, denounced “hate and bigotry’’ in a statement on Wednesday but made no mention of Trump or his comments.
Leaders of the Republican Jewish Coalition called on Trump to “provide greater moral clarity in rejecting racism, bigotry, and anti-Semitism.’’ They added: “There are no good Nazis and no good members of the Klan.’’
David Shulkin, the secretary of veterans affairs, delivered an emotional statement to reporters on Wednesday, saying: “Well, I’m speaking out, and I’m giving my personal opinions as an American and as a Jewish American. And for me in particular, I think in learning history, that we know that staying silent on these issues is simply not acceptable.’’
Boston rally cleared
The city will allow a “free speech’’ protest, with several stipulations. B1.
Monuments removed
Baltimore took down four Confederate statues without giving notice. A2.
Jon Chesto of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
