Gary Cohn isn't the Wall Street crook with the horrible Marie Antoinette wife... that's Mnuchin. Cohn's the Wall Street crook-- ex-chief operating officer of Golman Sachs-- being buffeted around in such a way that his time as part of the Trumpanzee Regime is probably approaching a... crest. Who think's the Trumpanzee ego is going to be able to handle the unambiguous personal criticism in paragraph two of this?When Cohn, who had been making over $20 million a year at Goldman, left to join the Trumpanzee Regime, he was given a handsome goodbye gift from his employer: $285 million. Do you think that buys corporate loyalty? No one has mentioned it in the calculus about why he decided to not resign from Trump's anti-Semitic regime. But he doeshave an awful lot of work to do for Goldman from inside the regime. Yesterday, though, Maggie Haberman reported that he had indeed drafted a resignation letter. She cited "two people familiar with the draft" as corroboration of the existence of the letter.
In his first public remarks on the national dialogue about the violence, Mr. Cohn said in an interview on Thursday with the Financial Times, that as a “patriotic American” he did not want to leave his job as the director of the national economic council. “But I also feel compelled to voice my distress over the events of the last two weeks,” Mr. Cohn said.In the days after the Charlottesville rally, when Mr. Trump defended white nationalist protesters, Jewish members of the administration were mostly silent. Mr. Cohn is so far one of the few in the administration to publicly condemn the president’s remarks. Military leaders posted messages on social media denouncing neo-Nazis and racism, but did not specifically mention the commander in chief. Public deviation from the president by the military is unusual.Mr. Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides,” as Mr. Cohn stood nearby in the lobby of Trump Tower where the president made his remarks to reporters. After Mr. Trump left, Mr. Cohn stood uncomfortably fielding questions about the president’s statements, and he repeatedly declined to comment. At the time, people close to Mr. Cohn said he was disgusted and deeply upset by Mr. Trump’s comments.On Thursday, Mr. Cohn spoke publicly for the first time about the issue in the Financial Times interview, which largely focused on tax reform.“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the K.K.K.,” Mr. Cohn said. “I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities.”Mr. Cohn added, “As a Jewish American, I will not allow neo-Nazis ranting ‘Jews will not replace us’ to cause this Jew to leave his job.”Mr. Cohn’s decision to publicly distance himself from the president comes at an awkward time, as Mr. Trump prepares next week to start a major national effort to sell a tax-cut plan, which Mr. Cohn has been toiling for months behind the scenes to craft. The president will travel to Springfield, Mo., to begin that push, a White House official said on Friday, the first of a series of stops around the country to build support for a major tax reduction, which Mr. Trump has vowed to enact this year though he has released few details.“Starting next week the president’s agenda and calendar is going to revolve around tax reform,” Mr. Cohn said in the interview with the Financial Times.In the days after the Charlottesville violence, Mr. Cohn’s family-- including his wife-- told him he needed to think seriously about departing, according to two people briefed on the discussions. Several of his friends in the business community also urged him to step away from the administration. Mr. Cohn is a former executive at Goldman Sachs.Mr. Cohn came close to resigning, according to one of the people briefed on the discussions. He met with Mr. Trump privately at the president’s golf club in New Jersey last Friday, scrapping his plans to spend the evening at his second home in the Hamptons.The markets were spooked last week amid fears that Mr. Cohn would resign, and United States stocks dropped until the White House denied the rumor. Mr. Cohn, who had spent his entire career in the trading world before joining Mr. Trump late last year, was deeply troubled by the market reaction, people close to him said.Mr. Cohn also told the Financial Times he spoke privately with Mr. Trump about these issues.“I have not been bashful saying what I think,” Mr. Cohn said.
OK, less bashful than Judas Goat Steve Mnuchin-- the one married to Marie Antoinette-- but probably more a lot more bashful than author Michael Chabon. Last week, Chabon mentioned in an open letter to American Jews that Trumpanzee "has no filter, no self-control, you have told yourself. If he were an anti-Semite-- a Nazi sympathizer, a friend of the Jew-hating Klan-- we would know about it, by now. By now, he would surely have told us. Yesterday, in a long and ragged off-the-cuff address to the press corps, President Trump told us. During a moment that white supremacist godfather Steve Bannon has apparently described as a 'defining' one for this Administration, the President expressed admiration and sympathy for a group of white supremacist demonstrators who marched through the streets of Charlottesville, flaunting Swastikas and openly chanting, along with vile racist slogans, 'Jews will not replace us!' Among those demonstrators, according to Trump, were 'a lot' of 'innocent' and 'very fine people.'" Cohn, who was paid that $285 million to make sure they could count on Cohn when he becomes Fed Chairman, didn't mean he was that not bashful.