Trump Disbands Infrastructure Council a Month After Creating It

WASHINGTON (CN) – The last of three advisory councils created by President Donald Trump will shutter, according to a White House official.

“The president has announced the end of the Manufacturing Council and the Strategy and Policy Forum. In addition, the President’s Advisory Council on Infrastructure, which was still being formed, will not move forward,” the official said.

The infrastructure council was established by an executive order the president issued in July.

Council members began an exodus from the committees when Trump issued conflicting, controversial statements on the violence stemming from a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12.

On Aug. 16, the president ended the manufacturing council and strategy forum in a tweet, writing, “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!”

This relatively even-keeled response was preceded by a jab at CEOs who began resigning from the councils a day earlier. As scrutiny over Trump’s remarks on Charlottesville ramped up, the president lashed out on Twitter.

"For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on," Trump tweeted after a few departures. “JOBS!"

The now-defunct Advisory Council on Infrastructure had a mission to “study the scope and effectiveness of, and make findings and recommendations to the president regarding, federal government funding, support and delivery of infrastructure projects in several sectors including surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resources, renewable energy generation, electricity transmission, broadband, pipelines and other such sectors as determined by the council.”

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