GM’s Barra Escapes Dilemma of Trump Council

One day after appearing to stay put on President Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum as other top industry executives fled another White House panel on manufacturing, General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra and her colleagues quit.

The action took pressure off the automaker to pull out of the forum amid mounting criticism of Trump’s tepid response to tragic civil unrest in Charlottesville, VA, where over the weekend white nationalists clashed with opposition protesters resulting in one death and injuries to 19 others.

Barra as late as Aug. 15 said she intended to remain on the panel, according to a poll of participating advisory council executives by the USA Today. But along with colleagues such as Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Barra reverses course today.

“The President and members of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum have disbanded the forum,” Barra says in a statement.

“General Motors is about unity and inclusion and so am I. Recent events, particularly those in Charlottesville, Virginia, and its aftermath, require that we come together as a country and reinforce values and ideals that unite us – tolerance, inclusion and diversity – and speak against those which divide us – racism, bigotry and any politics based on ethnicity.

“I am committed to our employees, customers, and shareholders, and I am very proud of our work in support of American manufacturing – from designing, manufacturing and selling outstanding trucks, crossovers and cars in the U.S. to advancing safer, simpler and sustainable transportation solutions for the future,” she says.

By dissolving the council, Barra and her peers relieve any potential political pressure of continued association with Trump at a time when other executives around the country, as well as leading Congressional Republicans and U.S. defense officials, are taking a critical stance over Trump’s remarks over the Charlottesville incident. Trump’s rhetoric Tuesday appeared soft on the white nationalists, saying there were “two sides to a story” in describing the clash.

As far as the advisory councils, it is unclear who dumped whom. Reports out of Washington say the executives acted first, while Trump tweeted this afternoon: “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!”

Barra’s forum provided the president with insight on matters such as tax, trade, regulations and the complexities of running a global business in the U.S. The council met at least twice and Barra has sat across from Trump three times since he took office.

“It’s very constructive dialogue and the administration (is) really listening to the input that we have and putting things in context,” Barra said of the meetings during a February conference call with investors.

“I think that understanding has been well received,” she said. “Clearly, there’s a lot of moving pieces right now and that’s why we are at the table and also working at all levels of the administration to make sure we’re providing the input.”

Barra considered the role a chance to represent the industry at a time when talk of a border tax on imported vehicles was high, although the idea of the levy has since lost steam. But on the same day her forum dissolves, Trump opens renegotiation with Canada and Mexico over NAFTA, another policy Barra almost certainly would have helped reshape with her perspective.

The implications to a tinkering with the 24-year-old NAFTA, while drawing industry support for some its weaker policies on issues such as currency manipulation and product safety, potentially could amount to billions of dollars in lost revenue for the industry and 31,000 U.S. jobs if the U.S. quits the pact altogether, experts estimate.

Congressional republicans also are working on an overhaul of the corporate tax code, with both OEMs and suppliers both are watching closely.

But evidently the price of keeping the forum together during what could amount to Trump’s greatest misstep since taking office in January was too high, especially for Barra and GM.

After a 2009 taxpayer-funded bankruptcy and a deadly ignition-switch scandal three years ago, GM has been working to rebuild its image on the string of record profitability and mostly positive response to its new products.

Among those new products is the Chevrolet Bolt battery-electric vehicle, which powered the Detroit automaker past California EV startup and Wall Street darling Tesla to market with an affordable all-electric car.

Falling into the quagmire of red-hot political debate with racial overtones would be a potential disaster for GM leadership, which just two months ago was criticized during an annual shareholders meeting by civil rights activist Jesse Jackson for lacking diversity.

“Our board (should) look like our market,” he said on June 6. “It does not.

“In America, the 100 largest cities are majority black and brown,” said Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a civil rights advocacy group. “Two-thirds of the hemisphere speaks Spanish, and our board does not reflect that. I think there must be some relationship between the board and the market we seek.”

Barra responded to Jackson saying GM and its board takes diversity seriously.

“As you know, as we continue to work with the Rainbow PUSH, the efforts we have on increasing our minority dealer representation, our minority supplier representation, as well as the workforce, and we’ve made tremendous strides in each of these areas, but we know we have continued work to do and we are dedicated and committed to doing that,” Barra said.

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