Trump business panel was already disbanding before Trump decided to end it

President Trump took credit for disbanding his White House Strategic and Policy Forum on Tuesday, but the panel’s members had already decided on their own to disband, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Trump was informed in a phone call with Blackstone Group LP chief executive Stephen Schwarzman, who led the Strategic and Policy Forum, that the council was disbanding over his comments blaming “both sides” for violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Sources familiar with the call told the Journal it was “cordial” but that Trump claimed credit in a tweet for disbanding the group after Schwarzman told him of its decision.

Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon that “rather than putting pressure” on the CEOs remaining in his advisory councils, he was “ending” the groups instead.

“Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!” Trump wrote in a tweet.

{mosads}The Strategic and Policy Forum released a statement Wednesday afternoon condemning “racism and violence” after Trump’s wild press conference Tuesday in which he described his initial remarks as “excellent” and blamed the “alt-left” for contributing an equal share to the violence on Saturday.

“As our members have expressed individually over the past several days, intolerance, racism and violence have absolutely no place in this country and are an affront to core American values,” the statement reads.

One woman was killed and more than a dozen were injured when a driver rammed a car through counterprotesters. A man with ties to a white nationalist group has been charged with second-degree murder in the case.

Trump accused counterprotesters of “charging in” with “clubs” and attacking white supremacists who were “legally” protesting.

“What about the alt-left that came charging at the — as you say, the alt-right?” Trump asked reporters on Tuesday. “Do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do. As far as I am concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day.”