The recent flight of corporate CEOs from President Trump’s business advisory councils, and the subsequent disbanding of the councils, was unprecedented. The establishment media stressed the irony of Trump the businessman failing to hold onto his business advisors. But that misses the importance of the exodus, which was sparked by Trump’s public statements expressing sympathy for the white supremacist demonstrators in Charlottesville.

Trump rose to the presidency vowing to become a kind of American strongman. He would make the country great again. He would defeat the scapegoats he held responsible for America’s flagging prospects. Political adversaries would suffer ridicule and perhaps even prosecution. Media critics would be intimidated into silence with taunts and threats. Sluggish government institutions would be re-energized, pressed into doing his bidding. At its most unadulterated, it was the playbook of a would-be right-wing nationalist ruler.

But Trump also took office lacking a key ingredient of a powerful presidency: he didn’t have the backing of the big corporations and banks that hold decisive economic and political power in the US.