‘I can describe Trump in one word – horrible’, says Andrew Liveris

Andrew Liveris has one word to describe Donald Trump, the only boss to have fired him.

Donald Trump with Andrew Liveris in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in December 2016. Picture: AFP

Andrew Liveris has one word to describe Donald Trump, the only boss to have fired him.

“Horrible,” he said.

Speaking for what he insisted was the first time about being marched by Mr Trump in 2017 as chair of the then US president’s handpicked American Manufacturing Council, the former Dow Chemical chief executive said his experience was not unique.

“I was not the only CEO he fired, he fired every CEO he worked with – which starts to answer your question,” he said on Wednesday, when asked what Mr Trump was really like.

“Horrible. I know it was reported differently when all this was happening. He appointed me as chair of his manufacturing committee which Obama had, and I worked very closely with President Obama and he was a delight.

“But no one asks me about President Obama, everyone asks me about President Trump. And … he was completely unpredictable and you know, the media got it right on him. I don’t say that often.”

The falling out happened in August 2017 in the wake of the white supremacist violence in the city of Charlottesville.

Mr Trump failed to condemn the extremists, who including professed members of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, after a counter-protester was killed, to the consternation of the image-conscious chief executives on the manufacturing council, an advisory group to the White House.

But contrary to what was in the media at the time, Mr Liveris did not resign. Nor did Mr Trump trouble himself to deliver the line that had earlier made him a reality TV star, telling Jared Kushner to do the firing in his place.

“His son-in-law did most of the dirty work. Did I say that?” Mr Liveris said, to peals of laughter in the audience.

“Jared called me. Jared said we don’t need you anymore, we don’t need the council anymore, you guys are dismissed, OK.

“No worries,” Mr Liveris replied.