The backlash against Donald Trump’s “hey, let’s look at both sides” stance on the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville this weekend continues, and for once, it might be hitting the president in one of the few places he still has human feelings left. The Guardian reports that Trump’s former colleagues in the business and manufacturing world are continuing to distance themselves from his rhetoric, with yet another one of his business advisory councils on the verge of collapse.
Trump already raced to pull the old “You can’t quit, I’m firing you” trick on his manufacturing council and the strategy and policy forum, both of which were faced with mass resignations from business leaders after Trump doubled down on his tacit support for the so-called “alt-right” in Virginia earlier this week. Now, an only recently announced infrastructure council—which was supposed to help the White House put together a $1 trillion spending package—has also been abandoned, as its members work to distance themselves from the president. That’s per Bloomberg News, which states that several members of the proposed group have declined to comment beyond making it clear that they were never “official” members of the group, including some of Trump’s old business buddies who’d been tapped to lead it. That’s three councils full of the kind of people Trump actually kind of respects who’ve turned their back on him; it remains to be seen whether these latest shame barrages will be able to penetrate the lacquer-esque layer of hair and ego that surrounds him and actually reach the human being hiding within.