Woodson: Gary Cohn Versus President Trump on Trade

gary cohn
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President Donald Trump has started to make the American economy great again with tough trade policies. Yet, Gary Cohn, the president’s chief economist has obstructed that agenda at every opportunity.

 President Trump announced on Twitter that, “Our Steel and Aluminum industries (and many others) have been decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy with countries from around the world. We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer. We want free, fair and SMART TRADE!”

  The Washington Post reports that the big obstruction is “White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and others, who managed to delay and major decisions on trade for months while they argued that more debate and study was needed.”

Cohn is the biggest obstruction to Trump’s trade agenda and it is time for him to get out of the way.

 Gary Cohn, former executive at Goldman Sachs, does not support President Trump’s trade agenda.  The Trump America first economic agenda has a goal of bringing jobs back home to America with trade policies that punish countries who don’t treat our goods fairly.  Nations that engage in unfair trade policies are subject to punishment in the form of tariffs.  Cohn has slow walked and opposed Trump’s tough actions on trade during his time in the Trump Administration.

 President Trump imposed strong tariffs on imports of washing machines and solar energy cells on January 22, 2018.  This was a strong step in a trade policy that forces nations like China and South Korea to renegotiate trade agreements.  President Trump has promised to renegotiate NAFTA and pulled out of the Trans-Pacific partnership in order to secure fair trade agreements for the United States.  Trump’s actions to impose tariffs is consistent with his campaign promise to implement an America first trade policy.

 Nations that use high tariffs on American goods and large government subsidies to drive competition out of business are now being punished. Trump’s tough talk and action on trade puts American workers and corporations first, yet Cohn is pulling in a different direction.

 The New York Times reported in a story titled “Gary Cohn, Trump’s Adviser, Said to Have Drafted Resignation Letter After Charlottesville” that, in August, Cohn was ready to quit.  In addition to it being unusual for a senior staffer of any administration to make public a decision to quit, the story describes Cohn’s trade philosophy that is 100 percent opposite from Trump’s.  Cohn was reported as favoring policies that pushed the Trump Administration away from America first trade policies and “ toward a more free-trade stance that avoids harsh steps toward China and other economic partners is paramount, these people said. Part of that, they added, is opposing tariffs on steel, aluminum and other goods that might damage relationships with American allies.”

 Cohn’s trade views have no place in a Trump Administration.

 Cohn weathered a public disagreement with the president’s response to the controversy and violence in Charlottesville. As reported here in Breitbart by John Carney on September 8, 2017, “Cohn’s fraying relationship with the president is raising questions about how much longer the former Goldman Sachs executive will remain in his post, according to a report from Reuters citing ‘sources close to the White House.” It is reason enough to fire Cohn for opposing his boss’ agenda, yet his insubordination is another reason why Cohn has to go. 

 The Washington Times reported on November 22, 2017 that “President Trump’s top economic adviser pretended to have a bad connection in order to cut short a telephone conference call with his boss, a Democratic senator told CNN Wednesday.”  In that report, Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) said that he told Cohn to tell President Trump, “Mr. President, you’re brilliant! But we’re losing contact, and I think we’re going to lose you now, so good-bye.”  Cohn listened to a Democratic Senator’s advice to hang up on the President of the United States.  If true, truly outrageous.

 America finally has a president who is putting the American worker and corporation first.  Economic nationalism is the idea that our government needs to protect the jobs of its citizens and American corporations.  Globalists turn a blind eye to bad trade agreements, foreign tariffs on American goods and massive government owned foreign monopolies slashing prices to corner the world markets.  They believe that it is OK if other nations make it impossible for Americans to sell goods by imposing high tariffs.  They don’t want to fight back.  President Trump wants to fight back and it appears that his own globalist economic advisor, Gary Cohn does not. Many hope that Cohn’s opposition to tough trade policies will finally lead him out the door and back to Wall Street. 

 The Trump Administration is in need of more loyalty to the President and his policies.  White House Economic Advisor Gary Cohn is providing no loyalty and is undermining the Trump trade agenda.

He needs to go.

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