Donald Trump's arts and humanities council resigns en masse as fallout from Charlottesville continues

An entire White House agency resigned en masse on Friday in protest at Donald Trump’s response to Charlottesville, as the embattled president faced further damaging condemnation from all sides for his remarks.

The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH) became the fourth presidential panel to disband after his ill-advised comments on Tuesday. 

Two committees of business leaders - the manufacturing council and strategic policy forum – ceased operations, with Mr Trump issuing a hasty tweet on Wednesday to announce their closure before the members could resign. A third committee, on infrastructure, would not even begin work, the White House said on Thursday.

Unlike the others, however, the 17-member PCAH is considered an official agency, with the First Lady as its honorary chair.

Founded by Barack Obama, it is yet to meet under Mr Trump, but works with American educators and leads cultural delegations to other countries.

On Friday its members, including artist Chuck Close, actor Kal Penn, author Jhumpa Lahiri and Vicki Kennedy, widow of former senator Ted Kennedy, issued a scathing statement to announce their mass resignation.

“We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions,” the members wrote, calling on the president to resign if he does not see a problem with what has happened this week.

“Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions.

“You released a budget which eliminates arts and culture agencies. You have threatened nuclear war while gutting diplomacy funding. The administration pulled out of the Paris agreement, filed an amicus brief undermining the Civil Rights Act and attacked our brave trans service members. You have subverted equal protections, and are committed to banning Muslims and refugee women & children from our great country. 

“This does not unify the nation we all love.”

Their concerns were echoed by the mother of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old paralegal who died in Charlottesville on Saturday, mown down by a white supremacist.

Susan Bro initially thanked Mr Trump for his words but, on learning later that he had equated the violent white supremacists with their counter protesters, said she wanted nothing to do with him.

He attempted to call her, she said, during her daughter’s funeral.

"I'm not talking to the president now," she said.

"You can't wash this one away by shaking my hand and saying, 'I'm sorry.' 

“I'm not forgiving him for that.”

She added she would tell Mr Trump: "Think before you speak."

"I think the president has found a niche in voters of the people who feel marginalised and I think he has continued to nurture those marginalised voters," she said. 

"I've had death threats already because of what I'm doing right this second - I'm talking."

On Thursday Mr Trump was buffeted by yet more criticism, notably by Bob Corker – a senior Republican loyalist, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, and a man who was considered for secretary of state.

He declared that "the president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to" in dealing with crises. 

Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican senator, said that Mr Trump's "moral authority is compromised."

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian-born former Republican governor of California, recorded a video with what he felt Mr Trump should say.

“The country that defeated Hitler’s armies is no place for Nazi flags,” he said, with the president represented by a Trump bobblehead.  “The party of Lincoln won’t stand with those who carry the battle flag of the failed Confederacy.” 

He then continued: “Growing up, I was surrounded by broken men -  men who came home from the war filled with shrapnel and guilt.

“Men who were misled into a losing ideology. And these ghosts who you idolise spent the rest of their lives living in shame. And right now they’re resting in hell. Let’s terminate hate.”

Two major charities, the Cleveland Clinic and the American Cancer Society, announced they are cancelling fundraisers scheduled for Mr Trump's resort in Palm Beach, Florida, amid the continuing backlash.

And, while Mr Trump sought to shift Thursday from the white supremacists to the future of statues, he was criticised by Rupert Murdoch’s son James, the president of 20th Century Fox, in an email widely circulated.

"I can't believe I have to write this: standing up to Nazis is essential; there are no good Nazis. Or Klansmen, or terrorists," he wrote, adding that he and his wife were donating $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said he was also making a donation.

Rumblings of discontent from Mr Trump's staff grew so loud that the White House was forced to release a statement saying that Gary Cohn, Mr Trump's chief economic adviser, was not quitting. 

The Dow Jones suffered its worst day since May on Thursday, but rebounded slightly on the news that Mr Cohn, a former president of Goldman Sachs, was staying put.