Merck’s Frazier Is Lonely C.E.O. Voice Challenging Trump on Charlottesville
Late Sunday evening, Kenneth C. Frazier, the chief executive of Merck — one of the biggest drugmakers in America — informed his board members
that he was about to do something that would have major fallout for him personally and for the company he leads: He was about to take a public stand against President Trump.
Mr. Frazier had been the only African-American chief executive to join one of the groups,
and on Monday, he was the only executive to break ranks with the president in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville.
A few hours later, Mr. Frazier resigned from Mr. Trump’s American Manufacturing Council, one of
several advisory groups the president formed in an effort to forge alliances with big business.
“Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing
Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!” he wrote.
“Any time someone stands up and does something brave, rather than wimping out, sure, there is a risk,”
said Thomas R. Cech, a board member who was among the people that Mr. Frazier contacted Sunday night.
“Bigotry, hatred and extremism are an affront to core American values
and have no place in this country,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of Blackstone and one of the president’s closest advisers in the business community.
“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal
that all people are created equal,” Mr. Frazier wrote.
