“I am Yahweh; that is My Name! I will not give My glory to anyone else, nor share My praise with carved idols.” (Isaiah 42: 8)
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Mr. President, Please Don’t Hire Another “Liberal Progressive” New York Prima Donna
On Tuesday afternoon, we were treated to this bit of breaking news: Gary Cohn resigns as Trump’s top economic advisor.
Cohn is a smart guy and a hard worker. His contributions to the Trump presidency on tax reform and regulatory reform were enormous. He deserves a lot of credit, but he’s a New York prima donna. In the end, prima donnas are more trouble than they are worth.
Prima Donna: a temperamental person with an inflated view of his own talent or importance.
The Charlottesville Fiasco
When the Charlottesville fiasco erupted in August 2017, rumors swirled about Gary Cohn’s leaving the White House. They said that Cohn was so deeply offended by the president’s response that he could not stay. They said that Cohn’s “liberal progressive” New York friends were urging him to resign in protest and that he almost did. Specifically, they said that Cohn bought into the “no moral equivalence” charge against the president.
I studied the Charlottesville fiasco and wrote about it in great detail in SnyderTalk. I watched the president’s responses, all of them. President Trump didn’t instigate the Charlottesville incident, and what he said about it was spot on.
See:
- The Charlottesville Incident: It was about Hate on the Left and Right
- The “No Moral Equivalence” Argument is a Radical Left Con Job—This SnyderTalk editorial includes videos of the president addressing the Charlottesville fiasco. The comments he made in the videos led to the “no moral equivalence” charge against him. As I said, it was a “radical left con job”, a lie.
- This Thing is Bigger than Most People Realize
- The Charlottesville Incident: Justice Demands Action, not Words
Speculation about Cohn’s leaving the White House on account of the Charlottesville fiasco surprised me. It was a made for TV public relations ploy by “liberal progressive” nutjobs. The establishment media who are also “liberal progressive” nutjobs were spreading the rumors about Cohn’s leaving.
If the rumors are true, I thought, Cohn needs to go.
Gary Cohn and the Free Trade Brouhaha
Since the end of World War II, the U.S. has been policing the world at our expense. The cost to U.S. taxpayers has been very high. We have provided much more than our fair share of the money that the U.N. needs to operate, and we’ve assumed the lion’s share of NATO’s costs. We did those things because we could and because we believed that our sacrifices would lead to peace and prosperity.
We have been taken to the cleaners in one trade deal after another since the war ended. We allowed it to happen because we wanted to improve global economic conditions, but the cost to us has been the loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs and tax revenue.
We don’t have free trade today. Every trade deal negotiated since the end of World War II has taken advantage of the U.S. The rest of the world seems to think that we have an obligation to continue letting them suck us dry.
President Trump understood the problem and promised to rectify the situation if he was elected. As president, he has done exactly what he promised to do. He realizes that the U.S. can’t afford to continue being the world’s milk cow.
Nothing happening now should have surprised Gary Cohn. If anything happening now caught him off guard, he wasn’t paying attention.
President Trump’s first move on the trade front was to threaten to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. As expected, “liberal progressive” Democrats and their water-toters in the establishment media started running around like chicken littles screaming “trade war” and “the world is coming to an end”.
For example, see “‘It means disaster’: White House aides fear more policy chaos after Cohn departure”.
I’ll bet you a dollar to a donut that Gary Cohn’s “liberal progressive” New York friends pressured him to resign. After all, he is President Trump’s top economic policy advisor, and the president’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum goes against Cohn’s advice. Trump decided to take the advice of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross instead.
Cohn’s “liberal progressive” New York friends are probably telling him that the president’s decision is a personal affront, a slap in the face. They’re telling him that he has no choice except to resign. It’s a matter of dignity and pride, they’re saying.
Truth is Cohn’s friends just want to embarrass the president. That’s what they have been trying to do since the day he defeated their sweetheart.
I think peer pressure caused Cohn to resign. His friends will milk his resignation for all it’s worth, but the brouhaha will blow over in a few days. Then Cohn’s friends will be looking for another way to embarrass the president.
Tuesday morning, a friend texted me and asked what I thought about President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum. That was hours before Gary Cohn announced his resignation.
This was my reply:
I’m not sure what [the president is] up to. My guess is that he’s trying to create uncertainty in the minds of our trading partners to get them out of their existing frames of mind. That way when they come to the negotiating table, they will be more open to change. Wilbur Ross isn’t an idiot and neither is Trump. They’ve been at this game (negotiating) for a very long time, and they’re good at it. I think we need to be patient and see what develops. It’s kind of like amateurs watching masters of chess play a game. To amateurs, many moves make no sense, but to masters of the game, each move has a specific purpose. I know what Trump’s goal is. I think it’s fun watching him maneuver. He’s not a politician. Politicians are going nuts because they must learn to play by Trump’s rules. They are like fish out of water.
What does Cohn’s resignation mean?
Short answer: not much.
Cohn is out, and Donald Trump is still President of the United States. He is pursuing the same agenda today that he has been pursuing all along. He’ll be pursuing it tomorrow, too.
“Liberal progressive” chicken littles will continue to do their thing, and Cohn will find something else to do. He fought a battle for influence in the White House and lost. That happens all the time in presidential politics. Somebody wins and somebody loses. It’s as simple as that.
Gary Cohn is a man of principle, but he’s not the president. If he wants to have everything his way, he should run for president and win. He doesn’t need for me to tell him about the facts of life.
I think there’s something else afoot.
I have a strong hunch that Gary Cohn resents the independence and influence that Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has in Trump’s presidency. Mattis is different. Trump is not a military guy. Mattis is.
Cohn is not the only guy in the room with business experience when he and the president are alone. That explains why Mattis has more influence than Cohn.
Cohn learned business at Goldman Sachs. It’s a great firm. Trump learned business in the rough-and-tumble world of real estate. He started in New York City and went global.
Trump is a mega-successful entrepreneur. Cohn is not. He’s a mega-successful Goldman Sachs guy.
Trump is President of the United States. Cohn is not.
The fact that President Trump doesn’t dance to the music that Gary Cohn is playing doesn’t surprise me. The president is marching to the beat of a different Drummer. Cohn must not be familiar with that tune.
Gary Cohn is a very wealthy guy. He’ll be fine. President Trump is on a mission that Cohn doesn’t understand. Hopefully, one day he will.
Memo to President Trump
President Trump is not going to call me and ask for my advice, but if he did, this is what I would say:
Mr. President, please don’t hire another New York prima donna. There are plenty of talented people in the U.S. As talented as Gary Cohn is, he is a “liberal progressive” New York prima donna at heart. Cohn’s New York friends wanted to hurt you, and they used him to do it.
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
See “His Name is Yahweh”.
