Following violent scenes in Washington D.C. last night, business groups in the US have called on vice-president Mike Pence to remove President Donald Trump from office.
Trump’s supporters mobbed Capitol Hill buildings just hours after the outgoing President repeated unsubstantiated claims that his recent election loss to Joe Biden was fraudulent in a speech outside the White House.
Four people died amid the chaos.
25th amendment
In a statement seen by the FT, the National Association of Manufacturers said the outgoing president had “incited violence in an attempt to retain power”.
NAM chief executive Jay Timmons called on Pence to “seriously consider” invoking the 25th amendment to the US constitution which allows the cabinet to remove a president deemed unfit for office.
‘Put an end to the chaos’
Other business groups have turned on Trump including the Business Roundtable, the voice of big businesses in Washington, who called the violence an unlawful attempt to deny Joe Biden victory.
It called on Trump “to put an end to the chaos and facilitate the peaceful transition of power”.
Other business groups announced they would not fund candidates who tried to block the election result.
“There’s not a major chief executive in the country now who’s a Trump supporter. Even the ones who voted for him find this whole thing abhorrent,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management.