Kiwi in Trump's team faces uncertain future

New Zealander Chris Liddell faces an uncertain future in the White House. Photo / File

Chris Liddell, the Kiwi who was formerly the chief financial officer at Microsoft, faces an uncertain future in US President Donald Trump's White House staff.

A raft of chief executives resigned from Trump's Manufacturing Council and Strategy and Policy Forum following his refusal to condemn white nationalists and neo-Nazis protesting in Charlottesville over the weekend.

Trump topped things off by tweeting he had ended both councils. Less certain is the fate of the American Technology Council which Trump did not address.

Chaired up by the President himself and directed by Liddell, the council has seen the chief executives of Microsoft, Amazon and Apple grace its meetings, although no outside executives are official members of the council.

US publication GeekWire has attempted to get comment from Microsoft, Amazon and Apple to find out if they intend any future involvement in the panel.

Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, was previously been tapped as a tech adviser. In June, he announced his resignation from all White House councils in light of Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement.

Among the chief executives who resigned following the weekend were Kenneth Frazier from Merck, Brian Krzanich from Intel, Kevin Plan from Under Armour.

Trump formed corporate advisory groups in part to show how closely he was pulling in corporate executives after they often complained about tax and regulatory policies during the Obama administration. Trump promised them the largest package of tax cuts in US history and a $1 trillion infrastructure package, but those plans have not materialised, while frustration with his comments and leadership style has grown.

On Wednesday, even the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, which often reflects the pulse of corporate leaders, said the resignations of chief executives should concern the president. "A GOP President who loses the business class has a big problem," the editorial page declared.

Trump has long said his background in real estate and numerous business ventures give him unrivalled expertise when it comes to rebuilding the US economy, which has seen weak economic growth since the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.

Before he became president, he railed against the state of the economy, decrying the loss of manufacturing jobs and dismissing the steadily rising stock market as a "big fat, ugly bubble."

But on Tuesday, before his comments about the rally by white supremacists, Trump had a much different take on the economy. He said the "country is booming. The stock market is setting records. We have the highest employment numbers we've ever had in the history of our country. We're doing record business."

- With Washington Post