The Trump-Cohn Romance Is Officially Dead

People who know Gary Cohn were first surprised, then relieved, when he announced that he would be joining the Trump administration. For one, Cohn has been a life-long Democrat. For another, the former Goldman Sachs president was known as a direct, no-nonsense operator whose management style would seem to conflict with Donald Trump’s preference for chaos. Banks like Goldman Sachs had, in fact, shunned Trump’s business for years, refusing to lend him money. On the campaign trail, Trump railed against Goldman Sachs and even dropped an allegedly anti-Semitic advertisement painting Goldman C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein’s as the face of a “global power structure responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class.”

But at least Cohn would be a moderating force and a steady hand in an administration sorely lacking in both, the thinking went. (“Trump loves having Goldman guys around,” a source told Gabriel Sherman last December. “The bank wouldn’t touch Trump, and now they’re working for him.”) For a while, the former real-estate developer was almost deferential toward Cohn, who had “walk-in privileges” and was allowed to interrupt Trump to offer his take on a situation. Trump reportedly loved that Cohn was a “guy’s guy,” and the fact that he had the experience of running an organization that employed thousands of people, plus a “self-assured confidence” put him at the top of Trump’s list of trusted associates, just below those related to him.

Unfortunately, like many Trump romances, this one has hit the skids. Trump quickly proved to be the sort of undisciplined employee who would’ve been fired from Goldman Sachs on day one. He withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, despite Cohn’s protestations. The breaking point was Charlottesville: Cohn was said to be “disgusted” and “dismayed” at his boss’s characterization of a group containing neo-Nazis as having some “very fine people,” and, after two weeks of stewing, let his thoughts be known in an interview with the Financial Times, wherein he condemned the president’s equivocating. Not surprisingly, it did not go over well.

The Washington Post reports that Trump is “simmering with displeasure over what he considers personal disloyalty from Cohn.” While he has so far resisted his impulses to fire the National Economic Council director, knowing that Cohn is effectively the face of the White House’s tax-reform effort, he has “found other ways to slight him,” including using the beginning of his tax speech in Missouri on Wednesday to give shout-outs to “the many distinguished guests” present but failing to mention Cohn. And because this is a family business, the Post notes that Ivanka Trump, who, along with her husband, Jared Kushner, was influential in bringing Cohn into the fold, “tweeted a call for tax reform with a picture of Trump backstage flanked by her and Mnuchin.  Notably absent was Cohn.”

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Asked later about the state of the Cohn-Trump relationship aboard Air Force One, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders  told reporters only that the two were committed to passing tax-reform legislation. Meanwhile, Trump has apparently been making calls “on his personal phone” to former White House strategist and Cohn-nemesis Steve Bannon, when Chief of Staff John Kelly isn’t around:

Trump chafes at some of the retired Marine Corps general’s moves to restrict access to him since he took the job almost a month ago, said several people close to the president. They run counter to Trump’s love of spontaneity and brashness, prompting some Trump loyalists to derisively dub Kelly “the church lady” because they consider him strict and morally superior.

“He’s having a very hard time,” one friend who spoke with Trump this week said of the president. “He doesn’t like the way the media’s handling him. He doesn’t like how Kelly’s handling him. He’s turning on people that are very close to him.”

That’s not great news for Wall Street, which has put its faith in Cohn and Kelly to keep the president calm, collected, and contained as Congress attempts to reform the tax code for the first time in 30 years. The market rally—not to mention peace in East Asia—depends on it. 
 
Cohn, for his part, has been reduced to making the usual hostage statements that tend to follow Trump feuds. During an appearance on CNBC Friday, Cohn said, “I have a great relationship with the president. . . . He and I are spending time working together on all the big economic issues that are going to drive economic growth and drive wages in this country. That’s what he cares about, that’s what I care about.” A White House spokeswoman told the Post, “Gary is here. The president is here.”

Treasury inspector general wants info on Mnuchin’s #daytrip with his wife

Earlier this month, Louise Linton, wife of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, cemented her place in Trumpworld as the official Real Housewife of the Trump administration. Posting a photo to Instagram of her #daytrip to Kentucky with Mnuchin aboard a government plane, Linton made sure to hashtag all of the designer clothes on her person, among them #tomfordsunnies, #valetino, #roulandmouret, #hermes. Things went downhill from there when, after receiving an arguably deserved comment questioning her judgment, she laced into the stranger by bragging about how rich she is, claiming she’s sacrificed more for this country than most ever will and, amazingly, calling the woman—later identified as a mother of three from Oregon—“adorably out of touch.” Later, as the backlash built, Linton apologized for her “inappropriate” commentary and clarified that she and her husband would be reimbursing the government for the trip. But like an arc on a reality TV show that cannot be wrapped up neatly in one episode, this story is not over.

Politico reports that #daytrip is now being investigated by the Treasury’s inspector general. Counsel Rich Delmar said late Thursday night that the office is “reviewing the circumstances of the secretary’s August 21 flight . . . to determine whether all applicable travel, ethics, and appropriation laws and policies were observed.” According to The Washington Post, Treasury secretaries and other Cabinet members who are not involved with national security have “traditionally flown on government planes only on rare occasions, including international trips, while taking commercial airlines for other domestic travel.” While Cabinet officials like Mnuchin may request a government-sponsored flight for “specific criteria,” the Department of Defense policy describes it as “a premium mode of travel involving high costs and limited resources” and encourages government employees to make “every effort . . . to minimize travel cost.”

Separately, the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Treasury Department for information about the trip, suggesting that it was planned so that Mnuchin and Linton would have an optimal view of last month’s solar eclipse. A spokesperson for the Treasury Department responded that “the eclipse did not even factor in the travel decision.”

Republicans may not be able to nuke the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that easily…

. . . Not because they don’t have a friend in Trump, who deems most government regulation, and particularly financial regulation born out of the Dodd-Frank Act (“a disaster!”), is an abomination that’s hurting his “friends”, but because ordinary Americans generally love the C.F.P.B. Per The New York Times:

At one point, contemplating a high-profile run on the agency, the White House examined polling data from political bellwether states, two people briefed on the matter said. The agency, they concluded, was too popular to pick a public fight with. Republicans in Congress, who have vehemently opposed the agency since its creation, have also not been able to muster enough support to derail its work. Efforts to strike down a rule ordering new consumer protections on prepaid debit cards never made it to a vote in either the House or the Senate.

“The public does not share the G.O.P.’s ire toward the agency or its mission,” policy analyst Dean Clancy told the Times. “It is an agency about protecting the little guy, and that is tough to oppose.” (The House, for its part, has of course tried, passing the Financial Choice Act in June, which would give the president the power to fire the director of the C.F.P.B. and vastly curb its oversight power.)

Jobs reports miss

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday that the U.S. economy added 156,000 jobs last month, fewer than the 180,000 economists had expected. The unemployment rate, which had been at a 16-year low of 4.3 percent, inched up to 4.4 percent. Trump, who said the unemployment rate couldn’t be trusted when Barack Obama was president and then suddenly started trusting it once he moved into the White House, offered no commentary on the news on Twitter.

Elsewhere!

U.S. Hiring Slows in August, Unemployment Rate Ticks Up (W.S.J.)

U.S. C.E.O.s Urge Trump to Keep DACA “Dreamers” Program (Bloomberg)

Harvey’s Toll on U.S. Gas Market May Not Emerge Until Next Week (Bloomberg)

The obscure economist Silicon Valley billionaires should dump Ayn Rand for (The Hive)

Wells Fargo Accounts Accord Called into Question as Victims Grow (Bloomberg)

Steven Cohen Raises Eyebrows by Using Auditor to Sell Fund Assets Holding Up SEC Settlement (MarketWatch)

The Job-Stealing Robot Apocalypse May Be Worse Than Previously Thought (The Hive)

Investor Who Sank Valeant Thinks a Bitcoin Fund Is the “Most Dangerous”(MarketWatch)

Trump Errantly Faves Tweet Saying He’s “Just Not Presidential Material”(N.Y. Mag)

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