‘We’re All on the Same Team, Right?’
President Donald Trump was aware that Gary Cohn, the director of his National Economic Council, would quit if he moved forward with his plan to inflict steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, but he did it anyway. Cohn is seen as one of the few stabilizing forces left inside the White House.
As the president spoke Tuesday afternoon just before 4 PM with the Prime Minister of Sweden in the East Room, one astute reporter noticed the chair in which Cohn was supposed to be sitting. It was empty.
As it turns out, hours before Trump’s joint press conference with Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, he had “demanded economic adviser Gary Cohn’s cooperation on tariffs in a meeting in the Oval Office Tuesday — asking Cohn directly if he would support his decision to move forward with the plan,” Bloomberg reports.
“Trump specifically asked Cohn: We’re all on the same team, right? He then asked if Cohn was going to support the president on the issue,” Bloomberg adds. “Cohn didn’t answer.”
President Trump is moving forward with the tariff plan, which nearly every reputable economist says will have disastrous effects.Â
As of this writing, the markets are tumbling.
“Dow futures fell more than 300 points on Tuesday evening after Cohn announced plans to step down amid a disagreement with Trump over trade policy,” CNN Money reports. “S&P 500 futures slid more than 1%.”
UPDATE: 7:52 PM ET –
Trump just posted this tweet in an attempt to save face:
Image of Gary Cohn by The White House via Wikimedia