Yahoo Finance Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook condemn Donald Trump over Charlottesville comments
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple boss Tim Cook are the two latest high profile business leaders to rail against Donald Trump.
The online heavyweights weighed in against the US president over his inflammatory comments about the white supremacy protest clashes in Charlottesville at the weekend.
In a lengthy post, Zuckerberg said it was disgraceful fascism still needed to be condemned.
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He said: “As a Jew, it’s something I’ve wondered much of my life. It’s a disgrace that we still need to say that neo-Nazis and white supremacists are wrong – as if this is somehow not obvious.”
He added: “We aren’t born hating each other. We aren’t born with such extreme views. We may not be able to solve every problem, but we all have a responsibility to do what we can.”
Referring directly to the events in Virginia – where one young woman was killed by a car driven at anti-fascist demonstrators – he added: “With the potential for more rallies, we’re watching the situation closely and will take down threats of physical harm.”
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And, while he did not name Trump directly, he did hint that president’s comments that “blame lay on both sides” – the alt-right and alt-left – were wrong.
“There’s not enough balance, nuance, and depth in our public discourse, and I believe we can do something about that,” Zuckerberg wrote.
“We need to bring people closer together, and I know we can make progress at that.”
Apple boss Cook said he disagreed with Trump’s view that there is a “moral equivalence” between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them.
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“Equating the two runs counter to our ideals as Americans,” he said in an email to Apple staff.
“Hate is a cancer, and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path. Its scars last generations. History has taught us this time and time again, both in the United States and countries around the world.
“We must not witness or permit such hate and bigotry in our country, and we must be unequivocal about it,” said Cook.
Apple will make $1m (£775m) contributions to both the Southern Poverty Law Centre and the Anti-Defamation League.
Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2017
Their interventions came as President Trump scrapped two business advisory panels amid a raft of resignations in the wake of his controversial assessment of the weekend violence.
His announcement on Twitter coincided with the resignations of the heads of 3M, Campbell Soup, Johnson & Johnson and United Technologies on Wednesday.
JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon, a member of the Strategy and Policy Forum, released a statement on Wednesday saying he strongly disagreed with Trump’s recent statements, adding that “fanning divisiveness is not the answer”.
