Chief economic adviser is staying, White House says
WASHINGTON — The White House on Thursday said National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn will not resign as it tries to contain the fallout from President Donald Trump’s controversial comments about the deadly riot in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend and his assertion that “very fine people” were protesting alongside neo-Nazis.
Cohn, who funded the Cohn Jewish Student Center at Kent State University in 2009, was mortified by Trump’s comments, three people close to him said, and he has been bombarded with calls from friends asking him if he will leave.
Instead, the White House said Cohn plans to stay put and focus on advancing Trump’s economic agenda. It was unclear, though, how long Cohn will remain in the job or if he is still a leading candidate to be nominated as the next chairman of the Fed.
Worries on Thursday that Cohn might join the exodus of business leaders after two White House corporate advisory boards disbanded in the wake of Charlottesville helped send the Dow Jones industrial average down 274.14 points, the largest sell-off in three months. Investors feared the Trump administration might lose a leading architect of the president’s economic agenda just as it approaches a critical juncture.
The White House needs Congress to vote to raise the debt ceiling and clear the way for tax cuts in the next few weeks, measures that have split the Republican Party and could face cliffhanger votes.
Without Cohn, “a very solid stabilizing force in the West Wing will be lost,” said Camden Fine, chief executive of the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group in frequent contact with the Trump administration. “Bottom line — not good.”