A high-level business forum set up by US president Donald Trump, and including PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, has disbanded, saying intolerance has "absolutely no place in this country".
PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi joined the group in December
The Strategic and Policy Forum, set up last year, said in a statement yesterday that debate over the group had "become a distraction". Several of the forum's members had expressed dissatisfaction over Trump's response to far-right rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month, in which an anti-extremism protestor was killed.
"As our members have expressed individually over the past several days," the forum said, "intolerance, racism and violence have absolutely no place in this country and are an affront to core American values."
Trump also announced the dissolution of the group, as well as of another forum made up of industry leaders, in a Tweet yesterday.
Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 16 August 2017
Nooyi joined a raft of business executives on the Strategic and Policy Forum in December. She joined at the same time as Tesla founder Elon Musk and then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. The forum was designed to offer economic advice to Trump.
Sectors: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), Legislation, Soft drinks, Water
Companies: PepsiCo
