Members of Trump’s arts commission quit after his Charlottesville comments
Members of Trump’s presidential arts commission have announced that they are quitting, The Washington Post first reported Friday, adding to Trump’s isolation after he made much-derided comments on the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.
The members include people from the entertainment and arts community, including actor Kal Penn, director George Wolfe, artist Chuck Close and others. The commission advises the president on issues including education and business.
Dear @realDonaldTrump, attached is our letter of resignation from the President’s Committee on the Arts & the Humanities @PCAH_gov pic.twitter.com/eQI2HBTgXs
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) August 18, 2017
{mosads}Some of the members from the Obama administration quit the commission immediately after Trump won the election, but others stayed on until Trump appointed their successor.
The move comes after at least a dozen CEOs of prominent companies left several of Trump’s advisory councils in the past week over his comments on the Charlottesville rally, during which one died and 19 more were injured when a car drove into a group of counterprotesters.
Trump dissolved two of the advisory panels this week as they were falling apart.
In addition, three major charities have canceled events that were scheduled to be held at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private resort in Florida.
Trump has been taking heavy criticism for suggesting that there are multiple sides to blame for the violence at the rally, refusing to put all the blame on the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who organized the event.
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