Trump’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council is also falling apart

(Credit: AP/Susan Walsh)

President Donald Trump is facing more internal defections, as seven members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council are resigning in protest against his administration.

The seven members of the 27-member panel are predominantly Democratic, according to a report by Roll Call. The panel was created by President George W. Bush in 2001 to provide advice to the Secretary of Homeland Security on how to protect America’s information and infrastructure systems.

So far four of the council members who were reported to have resigned have confirmed their resignations to Roll Call:

The council members providing that confirmation were [ex Obama administration staffer Cristin] Dorgelo; Christy Goldfuss, a vice president at the Center for American Progress who chaired Obama’s Council on Environmental Quality; DJ Patil, a political independent who was formerly U.S. chief data scientist under Obama; and Daniel Tangherlini, former administrator of the General Services Administration.

“Our experience to date has not demonstrated that the Administration is adequately attentive to the pressing national security matters within the NIAC’s purview, or responsive to sound advice received from experts and advisors on these matters,” the members wrote in a resignation letter. “In taking on this duty, we each took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Today, that oath compels us to resign. The moral infrastructure of our Nation is the foundation on which our physical infrastructure is built. The Administration’s actions undermine that foundation.”

Mass resignations from Trump’s Manufacturing Council and Strategic and Policy Forums caused Trump to disband both of those councils last week, according to a report by NBC News. That same week, when 16 of the 17 members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned to protest his response to the Charlottesville riots, they urged Trump to also step down from his office.