Gary Cohn, President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, 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.The relationship had been rocky for some time.
What I find to be rich in irony, though is that the guy affiliated with the left-leaning party is the one taking the free-market position, and the president, who is affiliated with the ostensibly right-leaning party, is the unabashed protectionist:
Cohn, a Democrat, has weathered constant criticism from Trump’s conservative allies. Every time he’s mentioned as a potential chief of staff, conservatives inside the White
House and on Capitol Hill move to try to block such a move.
Now the question is much less whether he could be chief of staff but rather whether Cohn will stay at all.
The tariff decision on Thursday capped several weeks of freewheeling and often caustic debates that one White House aide called “absolute chaos” and featured loud disputes between Cohn and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, a leading advocate of tariffs.Which is not to say conservatives like these tariffs. They don't.
LITD has discussed this Nararro character before. Kevin Williamson at NRO has the definitive look at Navarro's wacky economic ideas.
I find Larry Kudlow's initial remarks on the tariffs to be a study in careful wording:
Larry Kudlow, an outside Trump adviser often mentioned as a potential successor as NEC director, said he would not be surprised if Cohn felt burned by the steel decision. And he sharply criticized the president for Thursday’s announcement.
“All that will happen with steel tariffs is you will raise prices for all import users and that includes businesses and of course consumers,” Kudlow said. “You will wind up hurting millions of people to help 140,000 people in the steel industry. You will be hurting car buyers. Is that really what you want to do?”
I mean, it's direct, but it avoids going the whole hog and saying, "This guy is clearly demonstrating that he has a pattern of thumbing his nose at sound advice."
The Twitter attempts at spin by the VSG's bootlickers has been pretty amusing. A lot of attempts to make it look like 5-D chess. He's playing the media! He's sending coded messages! He's setting up a snare for Democrats!
Sorry, folks, you own this guy.
It looks like Cohn is on the verge of saying, "I don't own one subatomic particle of this."
American steel has been decimated starting before Reagan even. Reagan did nothing to halt its demise. Why bother now? I kinda like clean air.
ReplyDeleteReagan wasn't supposed to do anything to stop its demise. It's not the role of government to shore up any private industry.
ReplyDeleteNo but you'd a thunk government would have done something and not sat idly and complacently by as our cities and towns were decimated which brings us to this point of buying in to making America great again. Instead we made cities and towns in Mexico and China er al great. I know, tuff cookies, right?
ReplyDeleteThere have been many articles and books laying the American carnage all out for us to contemplate but they may be prohibited reading for the unfeeling.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but that's not the federal government's job.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm a fool for thinking the proof is in the pudding.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing in Mr. Madison's document that can be construed as giving the federal government the power to address the economic health of municipalities.
ReplyDelete