Image by Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump has stocked his stable of advisers with one more Goldman Sachs alum, appointing company president Gary Cohn to lead the National Economic Council in a stark departure from his campaign promise to “drain the swamp.”

Cohn will become the third Goldman pick to closely advise Trump, following the choice of Steve Bannon as chief White House strategist and Steven Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary. According to the Independent, he has given speeches in which he calls for the repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reform, implemented after the Great Recession and intended to prevent the country’s largest banks from taking on too much risk and imperiling the economy. Cohn has a mixed record when it comes to the Republican Party, much like Trump himself; both have a record of donating to members of both parties.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Trump’s inclusion of three former or current Goldman executives in his cabinet seems to be at odds with his campaign rhetoric, in which he attacked the banking sector as a threat to the country and cut a last-minute commercial that was seen as trading on the stereotype of Jews as moneychangers. Showing images of Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen and billionaire investor George Soros, the Trump ad implicated all these figures as part of “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon(www.twitter.com/DanielJSolomon)

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount