A Year After Charlottesville, J&J CEO Praises Trump On Economy

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Alex Gorsky, the CEO of New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson, which is headquartered in New Brunswick, met anew this week with President Trump and praised him on how well the economy is doing.

This comes exactly one year after Gorsky resigned last August from the White House Manufacturing Advisory Council over Trump's comments on Charlottesville, and publicly criticized Trump for what he said.

Gorsky met and dined with Trump and Melania at his Bedminster golf club for dinner Tuesday with 15 other influential business leaders in New Jersey, NJ.com reported.

"We're taking our economy to incredible new heights," Trump said at the beginning of the evening, according to publicly available transcripts of the evening provided to NJ.com and other media outlets.

"It's certainly great to hear the long list of accomplishments that you've been able to achieve in a very short period of time," Gorsky said to Trump on Tuesday evening, according to the transcript. "And I know everyone here is interested in talking about what else we can be doing to accelerate it even more."

The rest of the evening was private and not made available to the press.

On Aug. 16, 2017, Gorsky was one of several business leaders to resign from Trump's White House Manufacturing Advisory Council after Trump said there was "blame on both sides" for violence that happened over the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia. He also said there were "very fine people" on both sides of the debate to keep or tear down the statues.

"The president's remarks — equating those who are motivated by race-based hate with those who stand up against hatred — were unacceptable," Gorsky said last August.

His departure and that of several others forced Trump to disband the council last year.

Darius Adamczyk, the CEO of Morris Plains-based Honeywell, also attended Tuesday night's business summit, NJ.com reported.

Photo: Washington, D.C., 2017: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers opening remarks during a meeting with, left to right, Wendell Weeks of Corning, Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson, Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and other business leaders and administration staff in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. Business leaders also included Elon Musk of SpaceX, Mark Sutton of International Paper, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical, Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin and others were also on the White House Manufacturing Advisory Council, which was disbanded after multiple members quit after Trump's Charlottesville remarks in August of 2017. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)