It can’t be much of a coincidence that Gary Cohn’s resignation from the White House, reported Tuesday, comes amid President Trump’s controversial effort to wage a trade war.
As the head of the National Economic Council, Cohn opposed Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, a battle he seemed likely to lose. Indeed, in breaking the news of Cohn’s plans to resign, the New York Times reported the president’s announcement on the tariffs “was the most immediate catalyst for Mr. Cohn’s departure, according to people familiar with his thinking.”
But, of course, it wasn’t the only factor.
The unusual firewall of Democrats and centrists Trump installed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is crumbling. In roughly one week, Hope Hicks, Josh Raffel, and Cohn all announced their plans to leave the White House. Dina Powell announced her resignation last December. The Times further reported Trump has tasked John Kelly with shifting Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump out of their roles in his administration. Whether or not the couple is actually on their way out the door, Kushner’s portfolio was dealt a serious blow by the downgrading of his security clearance.
The epic internal struggle between the White House’s nationalist oriented officials and their centrist enemies has been a dominant narrative of this administration, driving wild news cycles focused on stories of palace intrigue.
Steve Bannon’s exit was interpreted by some on both sides of the fight as a sign the nationalists had succumbed. “It’s now a Democrat White House,” a friend of Bannon told one journalist at the time. In retrospect, such panic may have been premature.
The question now becomes what in the White House is eroding that firewall — especially over the past week. Are there internal signs beyond his public proposals that Trump is set to be driven more by his penchant for populist nationalism in the immediate future? Have the centrists and Democrats, who typically came to Washington from business backgrounds, simply had enough after one year in their posts? Is there more to the story?
Perhaps the downgrading of Kushner’s security clearance set off a chain of departures, nudging Hicks and Raffel to finally pull the trigger and leave, which in turn influenced Cohn’s decision as he mulled the looming trade war.
All this is to say these recent changes are significant, but their catalysts are of great interest as well.
