“When you put tariffs on goods that people in the United States consume every day, it’s a consumption tax. So all the tariffs did is they made products that Americans were going to buy more expensive. And in fact we got the final trade data numbers… And lo and behold, we hit an all-time record-high trade deficit globally, and with China.”
— Former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, on Freakonomics Radio.
“I don’t understand what the outcome is here, and I don’t understand where we’re going with it. I’m confused as to what the White House’s strategy is on this a little bit.”
— Former White House adviser Gary Cohn, quoted by the Boston Globe, saying the government shutdown “makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.”
When asked on Fox News if he thought former economic adviser Gary Cohn was a major source for Bob Woodward’s bestselling book Fear: Trump in the White House, President Trump replied that he “could very well have been.”
Then he hinted that he’s got dirt on Cohn: “I can tell stories about him like you wouldn’t believe.”
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Former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn tells Axios that Bob Woodward’s new book is “inaccurate” — but he declined to say what specifically Woodward got wrong.
Said Cohn: “This book does not accurately portray my experience at the White House. I am proud of my service in the Trump Administration, and I continue to support the President and his economic agenda.”
“Trump has privately been angry at both Gary Cohn’s and Rob Porter’s starring roles in the book, which both Trump and White House officials viewed as evidence that they were major sources for the author.”
Bob Woodward spoke to CBS News about his new book, Fear, and offered an anecdote about when economic Adviser Gary Cohn was upset over President Trump’s reluctance to condemn white supremacists for the violence in Charlottesville and went into the Oval Office to resign.
According to Woodward, “Trump said, ‘You can’t resign. I need you to do tax reform. If you leave, this is treason.’ And Trump talked him out of resigning.”
Afterwards, Chief of Staff John Kelly, who had been in the room, pulled Cohn aside: “Cohn wrote this down, quote from General Kelly: ‘If that was me I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times.'”
Former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told Bloomberg that social media companies like Facebook are a larger societal danger than were banks before the financial crisis, due to their dissemination of misinformation.
Said Cohn: “In ’08 Facebook was one of those companies that was a big platform to criticize banks, they were very out front of criticizing banks for not being responsible citizens. I think banks were more responsible citizens in ’08 than some of the social media companies are today.”
He added: “And it affects everyone in the world. The banks have never had that much pull.”
Former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn said that an escalating trade war could wipe out the benefits of the Republican tax law passed last fall, the Washington Post reports.
Said Cohn: “If you end up with a tariff battle, you will end up with price inflation, and you could end up with consumer debt. Those are all historic ingredients for an economic slowdown.”
Politico reports that “before he left the White House, former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn would withhold jobs report data from President Trump until shortly before their release because he was worried the president couldn’t help but say something about them.”
Former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn told CNBC that he feels “freer,” “more rested” and “happier” since exiting the White House, adding that he stands by his opposition to the trade tariffs that led to his departure.
Peter Navarro “is telling associates he wants Gary Cohn’s job as the president’s chief economic adviser,” according to Jonathan Swan.
“Publicly, Navarro has been coy, telling Bloomberg TV he’s not in the running for the job. But privately, the hardcore nationalist trade adviser is all in for the job.”
“He may be a globalist, but I still like him. … He’s going to go out, make another couple hundred million, and then he’s going to maybe come back. He might come back, right? We’ll be here… another seven years, hopefully — that’s a long time. But I have a feeling you’ll be back.”
— President Trump, quoted by Politico, on economic adviser Gary Cohn leaving the White House.
Mike Allen reports that President Trump would be willing to entertain calling Gary Cohn back for a big job — White House chief of staff? — and Cohn would consider it.
Ben White: “One thing that didn’t make my Cohn story: If the president called him up in month or two and offered him chief of staff, he’d probably take it and go back in.”
“President Trump has told advisers that he believes economic adviser Gary Cohn will leave his White House job if Trump decides to go forward with tariffs on imported steel and aluminum,” Bloomberg reports.
“Cohn has mounted a last-ditch effort, along with other administration officials and some Republican lawmakers, to head off steep tariffs that threaten to unleash a global trade war.”
Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn “has been rumored to be on the brink of leaving the White House for months but stayed for one main reason: to stop the president from imposing steep tariffs,” Politico reports.
“By Thursday afternoon, Cohn had lost the fight.”
“The decision came after a frantic 24 hours in which Cohn and others tried to walk Trump off the ledge. At one point, aides were sure Trump would make the announcement. Then they said he wouldn’t. Finally, sitting alongside steel executives, he did.”
Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) told CNN that White House adviser Gary Cohn took a call from President Trump during a discussion with Democratic senators about tax reform.
Said Carper: “Gary gets up and takes a call on his cellphone, comes back into the room, and says, we have somebody calling in from Asia, and it was the president, which was nice. Nice of him to do that. 15 minutes later, the president is still talking. And I said to Gary, it was a room where we’re all sitting around this big table, and I said, Gary why don’t you do this… just say, ‘Mr. President, you’re brilliant! But we’re losing contact, and I think we’re going to lose you now, so good-bye.'”
He added: “And that’s what he did, and he hung up.”
Politico: “The former Goldman Sachs president, now Trump’s top economic adviser, was a front-runner for the Fed job until August, when he publicly broke with the president over his handling of fatal neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.”
“As recently as last month, the two still appeared at odds. Guests at a black-tie gala in Washington in mid-October honoring First Lady Melania Trump were treated to an awkward display between the two, as the president stared straight ahead and continued to make small talk with others while Cohn was trying talk to him, said an attendee.”
“Cohn is telling people he never really wanted the Fed job anyway. The Fed chairmanship, though immensely powerful, can be a dreary slog through endless meetings deciphering esoteric economic signals followed by tedious trips to the Hill to answer questions from grandstanding members of Congress.”
Vanity Fair: “Working for Trump has been slowly eroding the reputation he spent 27 years crafting so meticulously at Goldman. His angst came to a head in August, during the 10 days after a group of white nationalists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, when Trump repeatedly fumbled his response to an incident that left one protester dead. As Kate Kelly and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times reported on August 25, Cohn drafted a letter of resignation, and was prepared to deliver it to Trump.”
“What has not been previously reported is that, according to a source with detailed knowledge of this thinking during that period, Cohn sought to resign twice while speaking directly to Trump during that 10-day period. He also spoke with John Kelly, the new chief of staff, about his desire to resign. But apparently, resigning from Trumpworld is far more difficult than one would expect. Cohn’s continued presence in the West Wing is a testament to a reality that is rapidly becoming crystalline: that Cohn, along with Kelly, Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, and Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, are all that is standing between Trump and utter chaos and incompetence.”
David Leonhardt: “Within the administration, there are real differences among how top officials have behaved and how they are perceived. Several — Tom Price, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer and Rex Tillerson — have badly sullied their standing with virtually everyone outside the administration. After long careers, they have turned themselves into punch lines.”
“The clearest exception is Jim Mattis, the defense secretary. Mattis has done so partly by avoiding scandal and minimizing conflicts with Trump. But he has also been careful to set his own ethical boundaries. Can you recall a single time when Mattis has said something outright untrue? I can’t. That’s how he has retained his dignity in the eyes of so many people.”
“Cohn and Mnuchin have started to risk theirs. This column is a plea to them: Please stop, for everyone’s sake, including yours.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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