Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, has dared to suggest that Trump’s response to Nazis marching through American streets and white supremacists carrying out acts of terrorism was something less than a full-throated disapproval.
“I have come under enormous pressure both to resign and to remain in my current position. … As a patriotic American, I am reluctant to leave my post … because I feel a duty to fulfill my commitment to work on behalf of the American people. But I also feel compelled to voice my distress over the events of the last two weeks.”
The interview, which appears in the Financial Times, represents a rare instance of a Trump official demonstrating even the slightest amount of spine in the face of Trump. No matter what Donald Trump says or tweets—even when he directly attacks officials in his own White House—they can usually be counted on to voice no opposition. When Trump was having a conniption, both in interviews and on Twitter, over Jefferson Sessions’ rescuing himself from the Russia investigation, about the worst thing Sessions said in reply was that being beaten in public was unpleasant.
Shortly after Charlottsville, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin went out of his way to defend Trump’s statements.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, under fire from Yale classmates and Jewish critics of President Trump, strongly defended the president’s equivocating response to the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Va., in a written statement this weekend.
But Cohn’s interview makes it clear that not everyone in the Trump White House found Trump’s response even close to adequate.
“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.”
Cohn’s statements mark him out as the only Trump official willing to go public with criticism of Trump’s response. He also makes it clear that the only reason he hasn’t left his position isn’t out of loyalty to Trump, but the feeling that his leaving would be a victory for white supremacists.
“As a Jewish American, I will not allow neo-Nazis ranting ‘Jews will not replace us’ to cause this Jew to leave his job,” he says. “I feel deep empathy for all who have been targeted by these hate groups. We must all unite together against them.”
However, in his defense of Trump, Mnuchin dismissed criticism of his response as a distraction from Trump’s agenda of tax reform.
Mnuchin said that "as someone who is Jewish, I believe I understand the long history of violence and hatred against the Jews" and other minorities.
Cohn’s statements are easy to interpret as going beyond a rebuke to the supremacist groups marching in Charlottesville.
Cohn wasn't really talking about neo-Nazis tempting him to quit; he was talking about the president doing that. And his comments amount to a pretty stunning rebuke of his boss.
We'll see what his boss does about it, because we're in pretty uncharted territory here. Does Trump tolerate his own aides publicly chastising him in this manner? It's almost as if Cohn is daring Trump to fire him — and relieve him of his own conflicted feelings about serving this president.
Cohn and Mnuchin rolled out the scant, detail-free of Trump’s tax plan that has so far all that has been made public, and are part of the self-named “Big Six” group that is working to define the plan. Early information indicates that the plan includes massive cuts in corporate taxes and the top tax rate, while considering taxes on 401K plans and limiting home mortgage deductions.