President Donald Trump’s Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn has announced his resignation after losing out in a battle culminating in Trump’s protectionist push to slap steep tariffs on steel and aluminium, disregarding warnings that it could trigger a trade war and harm US economic growth.
The exit of Cohn, who headed the National Economic Council, is the latest and one of the most important in a series of high-profile departures from the Trump White House. A Brookings Institution study puts the turnover of Trump aides since he took office about 14 months ago at as high as 43 per cent.
A strong advocate of free trade, Cohn had also differed sharply with Trump over his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord. On the plus side, Cohn, a former President of Goldman Sachs, counts the landmark tax reform legislation among the big achievements of his time at the White House.
“It has been an honour to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform,” Cohn said in a statement, adding: “I am grateful to the President for giving me this opportunity and wish him and the Administration great success in the future.”
Trump, in a statement given to The New York Times, said: “Gary has been my chief economic adviser and did a superb job in driving our agenda, helping to deliver historic tax cuts and reforms and unleashing the American economy once again. He is a rare talent, and I thank him for his dedicated service to the American people.”
On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted: “Will be making a decision soon on the appointment of new Chief Economic Advisor. Many people wanting the job – will choose wisely!”
Trump, at a joint White House news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan lofven, strongly defended his decision to slap 25 per cent import duty on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium in the name of protecting domestic industry and workers.
“I’m here to protect. And one of the reasons I was elected is I’m protecting our workers, I’m protecting our companies. And I’m not going to let that happen,” Trump said, adding: “So we’re doing tariffs on steel. We cannot lose our steel industry. It’s a fraction of what it once was. And we can’t lose our aluminum industry. Also a fraction of what it once was.”