NEW YORK — With corporate chieftains fleeing, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he is ending a pair of advisory business councils in the latest fallout over his remarks about protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!” Trump tweeted from his home at Trump Tower. He was to depart New York later Wednesday to return to his New Jersey golf club.

CEOs began announcing their resignations after Trump’s first comments about the violence Saturday in Charlottesville between white supremacists and counterprotesters. The resignations accelerated after he re-emphasized his earlier remarks and on Tuesday blamed “both sides” for the series of events that led to the death of a 32-year-old Charlottesville woman.

Standing in the lobby of Trump Tower on Tuesday, Trump said there were “some very bad people” among those who gathered to protest Saturday, adding: “You also had people that were very fine people on both sides.”

Trump’s remarks were widely criticized in Washington and around the country.

Stay tuned for updates as this story develops.

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