Trump drops plan to create infrastructure council: White House

[WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump has abandoned plans to create an infrastructure advisory council, the White House said on Thursday, the day after two other advisory groups were dismantled over the furore caused by Trump's remarks on white supremacists.

"The President's Advisory Council on Infrastructure, which was still being formed, will not move forward," a White House official said.

The decision to drop the planned council was first reported by Bloomberg.

Mr Trump signed an executive order last month establishing the advisory council, with members to be drawn from real estate, construction, transportation and other sectors of the economy.

Mr Trump has proposed spending US$1 trillion to fix aging US roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure, a major part of his legislative agenda along with healthcare and tax reform.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump disbanded two other high-profile advisery groups after several chief executives quit in protest over his remarks blaming violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend on anti-racism activists as well as white nationalists.

Mr Trump said he dissolved the American Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum "rather than putting pressure" on its members, although both groups were moving to disband on their own when Mr Trump made his announcement on Twitter.

REUTERS