Gary Cohn Is One Of The Few Trump Aides Who Stand Up To Him

Gary Cohn Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman March 24, 2017

President Donald Trump is still refusing to concede he was wrong to accuse his predecessor Barack Obama of wiretapping the Trump campaign headquarters before the elections, and the New York Times’s theory is that very few of his aides can stand up to him.

One of the two who can, however, is Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic adviser. Cohn, according to the Times, showed his force during a recent Oval Office meeting.

“Mr. Cohn was speaking when Mr. Trump interrupted him. ‘Let me finish,’’ Mr. Cohn interjected, according to a person with knowledge of the interaction,” the Times reported, adding that Trump, “unaccustomed to ceding the floor,” let Cohn finish.

But Cohn, according to the report, would rather limit the use this special status he has in the White House to economic issues, choosing not to weigh in on every presidential tweet.

Steve Bannon is the other aide who can and does challenge the president.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.