US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he was scrapping two business advisory councils in the wake of several high-profile resignations in protest over his comments on a white supremacist rally in Virginia that turned violent.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!" Trump said on Twitter.

The CEOs of Merck, Intel and Under Armour were among those who quit the forums following Trump's comments about Saturday's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A suspected Nazi sympathizer then plowed his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters, leaving one woman dead and 19 others injured. The driver, James Fields, has been charged with second-degree murder.