On Tuesday (Mar. 6), CNN reported Gary Cohn, the White House Chief Economic Adviser, resigned amid strong criticisms about President Trump’s recent announcement of imposing tariffs on aluminum and steel imports. The tariffs will inflate the costs of everything made from aluminum and steel, thereby, affecting all of the manufacturing tentacles of the import and export market.
Those strongly opposed to Trump’s suggested policy see the impact of the tariffs being a hard hit for Americans rather than profiting from any of the countries importing goods to the US.
Some economists even fear a trade war because of this bold move from the POTUS. The stock market also took another hit on Tuesday (Mar. 6) as a result of Adviser Cohn stepping down.
Just like Hope, Gary's departure is not shocking
Donald Trump has repeatedly said there is no chaos in the White House but people keep leaving. Just recently, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, Hope Hicks, the Communications Director announced she was resigning. This came after she testified before the Intelligence Committee. Around the time of Hicks’ announcement, it was rumored that National Security Adviser, General H.R McMaster may also be leaving and if so, it would be closer to the end of March.
In Aug. 2017, after Trump commented about fine people being on both sides of the racially charged Charlottesville protests, involving White Supremacists, it was then that Cohn drafted a letter of resignation.
After some cajoling, Donald Trump managed to get Cohn to stay, and stay he did—until now.
Gary Cohn has been known across partisan lines for his strong Wall Street background, solid sense of worldwide economy, level-headedness, and for simply being a decent fellow. Although his resignation comes at one of the most awkward times for the Trump White House, considering the earlier dismissals of Cohn’s possible departure as fake news along with the ongoing Russia Probe, the new lawsuit filed against the POTUS by an adult film actress, Sam Nunberg’s recent purge on national cable networks, and a slew of other woes—Cohn’s exit is long overdue.
Trump, the magician
America remembers the first involuntary disappearing act - FBI Director, James Comey. This was unexpected since the firing came soon after President Trump took office in 2017. It seemed Comey had decided he preferred to pledge allegiance to his country and honor a moral code of ethics rather than pledge loyalties to the now POTUS in order to allay one man's fears.
After just one year in office, Trump has had more personnel turnover than any other president in modern US history. This, however, is not viewed as a negative by the current POTUS. On Tuesday (Mar. 6), in response to the media’s questions about the chaos that seems to be coming from the White House, Trump explained that there was no chaos, just energy.
It is unclear if this energy is purposefully negative, and being used as an abracadabra technique to make people disappear—a sort of drain the swamp tactic—or it is energy that is the result of ineptitude that has begun to chip away at strength and integrity of the strong, coaxing them to bend to the will of authoritarianism seedlings?
Regardless of energy type, energy is contagious.
If energy repeatedly promotes a feeling of unwellness, then pause must be given, because something is wrong. Something is awry when an awestruck nation watches dribbles--and at times, streams--of a mass exodus searching for the path back to dignified diplomacy.
The frequency of the departures speaks volumes about leadership. A nervous void is being felt from coast to coast with many hoping for a quick resolve. However, this is only the beginning. Hang on to your flip-flops. Things are about to get a whole lot uglier before it gets even a fraction better.
