Charities cancel events at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club

The American Red Cross has said it will cancel its annual fundraiser at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

The charity is the sixth nonprofit to cancel a gala at the president’s event space in two days, after Trump’s controversial comments equating neo-Nazis and anti-hate protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“The American Red Cross has decided we cannot host our annual fundraising event at Mar-a-Lago, as it has increasingly become a source of controversy and pain for many of our volunteers, employees and supporters”, the Red Cross said Friday.

“We believe this action will allow us to continue to put the focus on our lifesaving mission and the people we serve. The Red Cross provides assistance without discrimination to all people in need, regardless of nationality, race, religious beliefs, or political opinions, and we must be clear and unequivocal in our defense of that principle.”

In addition to the Red Cross, five other charities have canceled in the last 24 hours, including the leading academic hospital the Cleveland Clinic, the American Cancer Society and the Friends of Magen David Adom (the Israeli Red Cross). Other medical organizations canceled galas at Mar-a-Lago earlier in the year, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The Washington Post reported that the Salvation Army, the Autism Project of Palm Beach County and Susan G Komen have all also canceled fundraisers.

The organizations that have canceled are juggernauts in the American nonprofit world. For example, the Cleveland Clinic alone said it raised $1m each year at its Mar-a-Lago event, according to the Boston Globe.

The announcement comes after the Red Cross withstood pressure in January to cancel its annual gala at Mar-a-Lago. At the time, critics said the president’s moratorium on refugees conflicted with the aid organization’s mission.

Nonprofits are not the only ones abandoning Trump after his comments on Charlottesville.

Three White House business panels have been disbanded this week after CEOs of some of the country’s largest companies withdrew their support.

On Friday, 16 members of Trump’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities sent the president a letter of resignation, citing his “hateful rhetoric”. The letter featured an acrostic which spelt out “resist”. The members were appointed by Barack Obama.

And one of the three universities to give Trump an honorary doctorate is considering whether to revoke it.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, warned of an “unraveling of our national fabric” in a Facebook post attacking Trump over his defence of people involved in a neo-Nazi rally.

“Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn,” Romney, a longtime critic of Trump, wrote on Friday.