August 16th Update:
Trump's racism finally reached a breaking point for his big business friends. After Trump's lack of condemnation of the racist, anti-Semitic violence in Charlottesville, together we mounted pressure to tell these corporate execs they had no excuse but to resign from these councils. And so many did, that Trump just made a pathetic move to "disband" his advisory council. But Trump didn't disband these councils -- you did.
The fight is far from over, but let’s remind Trump that he can’t take credit for disbanding a ghost team. This is a grassroots victory through and through.
Breaking -- Trump has just signed a new version of his Muslim ban into law.
And it’s as bad as the order from January. At its core it is every bit as Islamophobic and hateful as Trump’s previous executive order, still banning nationals from six Muslim-majority countries, namely, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Yet the CEO’s of Disney, IBM, Walmart are still backing Trump by serving on his economic advisory panel.
Enough is enough, there can be no collaboration with hate. Tell these 18 CEOs and corporate advisors to step off of Trump’s advisory council -- now.
Breaking (2/2/2017): Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has dropped out of President Trump's business advisory council over Trump's immoral Muslim Ban. Now it's time for other CEOs to do the same.
Thousands of people are taking to the streets to protest the Trump Administration’s heinous ‘Muslim ban’.
But corporate CEOs are being dangerously silent.
19 business leaders signed up to officially advise Trump, including executives from Disney, Walmart, PepsiCo, and IBM. So far, only 2 have spoken out against the immigration order that violates both the values of the U.S. constitution and the 1951 Refugee Convention.
This is pure cowardice. We know that most chief executives of large corporations support immigration -- and almost all of them will have employees affected by the ban.
But, swayed by Trump’s new position and afraid to speak out publicly, corporate bosses are staying silent, and looking after their own interests and profits over the basic human rights of their employees, customers, and vulnerable refugees. And above that they are still contributing to Trump's violent agenda by validating him as advisors.
There is no neutral. Either CEO advisors must speak out against the Trump Administration’s travel ban and step off of his committee, or they are complicit in the violence his administration is creating.
Call on Trump’s 19 CEO and corporate advisors to publicly condemn his ‘Muslim ban’ and stop collaborating with his dangerous administration.
Here are the 19 chief executives and prominent business leaders who signed up to advise President Donald Trump. We will continue naming and shaming each one of them until the advisory council comes out and explicitly condemns Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’:
- Stephen A. Schwarzman (Forum Chairman), Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Blackstone;
- Paul Atkins, CEO, Patomak Global Partners, LLC, Former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission;
- Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO, General Motors;
- Toby Cosgrove, CEO, Cleveland Clinic;
- Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co;
- Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO, BlackRock;
- Travis Kalanick, CEO and Co-founder, Uber Technologies;
- Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO, The Walt Disney Company;
- Rich Lesser, President and CEO, Boston Consulting Group;
- Doug McMillon, President and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.;
- Jim McNerney, Former Chairman, President, and CEO, Boeing;
- Elon Musk, Chairman and CEO, SpaceX and Tesla;
- Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo;
- Adebayo “Bayo” Ogunlesi, Chairman and Managing Partner, Global Infrastructure Partners;
- Ginni Rometty, Chairman, President, and CEO, IBM;
- Kevin Warsh, Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics, Hoover Institute, Former Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;
- Mark Weinberger, Global Chairman and CEO, EY;
- Jack Welch, Former Chairman and CEO, General Electric; and
- Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize-winner, Vice Chairman of IHS Markit.
These corporate bosses have unparalleled access to one of the most powerful men in the world. We have to invite them to rise above the demands of their bottom line and their egos and stand for what is right.
CEO's of Disney, Walmart, PepsiCo, IBM, and corporate advisors: Stop collaborating with Trump.
Trump announced and signed his immigration order on Holocaust Memorial Day -- with no mention of Jews or the devastating impact of being religiously persecuted and massacred. With no sense of irony that if Anne Frank had not been denied a U.S. visa in the 1930s, she would be an 87 year-old woman living in Boston today.
Instead, Trump has thrown people’s lives into disarray: men and women who have served and risked their lives for the United States in Iraq, refugees fleeing war and persecution in Syria and Iran, among others.
Fatemeh Shams is an Iranian professor at University of Pennsylvania, whose loved ones were persecuted and imprisoned in Iran. She says:
“Everything including my career is now at risk. I have been sleepless for two nights. Sleepless and speechless. It doesn’t matter if you are a professor at one of the best universities of this country or a student or a migrant or a refugee. As long as you were born in Iran you are accused of being a terrorist and therefore you are banned from living a normal life. You are banned from seeing your loved ones. You are banned from travelling. You are banned from being a human being.”
Now is the time for us to take action. Trump won the Electoral College, but he lost the popular vote. He has the lowest approval rating of any incoming president in recent history. That gives us power. That gives us moral fortitude in the face of the extremist policies he is peddling.
Tell corporate advisors to publicly condemn Trump now.
Trump’s policies don’t just target immigrants, Muslims, or refugees. Racist abuse, transphobia, homophobia, and street harassment of women are all on the rise while women’s access to health care is under threat.
Before we can build the world we want to see, we have to hold the line. We’re starting here.
More information
The Guardian. 30 January 2017.
Buzzfeed News. 29 January 2017.
NBC News. 14 December 2016.