Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, resigns over tariff plan
WASHINGTON—Gary Cohn, the top economic adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump and a key ally for Canada in a White House skeptical of free trade, announced his resignation Tuesday after Trump refused to relent on his plan to impose broad tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Cohn, a former president of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, is a pro-trade Democrat who was seen by Wall Street as an important counterweight to the administration’s “nationalist” faction.
His trade views sat uneasily with those of Trump, who has long favoured protectionism, and it was never clear how much influence he managed to exert on trade policy. Cohn had tried furiously, to no avail, to persuade Trump not to announce the tariffs.
But his departure as director of the National Economic Council may be another sign of the ascendance of the White House’s protectionist faction. It comes just over a week after Trump promoted trade skeptic Peter Navarro, who had previously been sidelined by chief of staff John Kelly.
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/...hell-run-this-one-in-a-loving-loving-way.html
WASHINGTON—Gary Cohn, the top economic adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump and a key ally for Canada in a White House skeptical of free trade, announced his resignation Tuesday after Trump refused to relent on his plan to impose broad tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Cohn, a former president of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, is a pro-trade Democrat who was seen by Wall Street as an important counterweight to the administration’s “nationalist” faction.
His trade views sat uneasily with those of Trump, who has long favoured protectionism, and it was never clear how much influence he managed to exert on trade policy. Cohn had tried furiously, to no avail, to persuade Trump not to announce the tariffs.
But his departure as director of the National Economic Council may be another sign of the ascendance of the White House’s protectionist faction. It comes just over a week after Trump promoted trade skeptic Peter Navarro, who had previously been sidelined by chief of staff John Kelly.
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/...hell-run-this-one-in-a-loving-loving-way.html
