Why Trump should fire Gary Cohn

Gary Cohn is President Trump’s National Economic Council Director. In an interview with the Financial Times, Cohn criticized Trump’s comments about the violence in Charlottesville, stating that “citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.”

True. But Trump did not equate the two sets of people. He said that more than one side was to blame for the violence in Charlottesville.

This statement is true. Even a New York Times reporter who witnesses the violence acknowledged the role of the “hard left” in the violence.

It’s bad enough when a presidential adviser goes on the record to rip the president for something he said. When an adviser rips the president for a statement he did not make, that adviser should be sacked.

Moreover, it is Cohn who made an improper equation. He equated the antifa thugs who committed violence in Charlottesville with those who “stand up for equality and freedom.”

Antifa isn’t about standing up for equality and freedom. It’s about imposing a far left vision through violence and anarchy.

These thugs and their sympathizers were not standing up for freedom when they rioted in Berkeley in an attempt to shut down the free speech rights, or when they caused the cancellation of a parade Portland, Oregon by threatening violence against Republican participants, or when they smashed windows and assaulted police officers in Washington, D.C. the day of Trump’s inauguration.

Antifa is the antithesis of a group that stands up for freedom. It seeks to deny freedom to its political opponents, including mainstream ones such as Oregon Republicans. Even the radically leftist Southern Poverty Law Center has criticized them.

Yet, the clueless investment banker from Goldman Sachs, equates them with freedom fighters. Has he worked out why they wear masks?

Cohn’s urge to engage in virtue signaling overcame not only his sense of loyalty to the president but his regard for the truth. It has not overcome his eagerness to participate in the Trump administration, but should put an end to Trump’s willingness to have him continue that participation.

UPDATE: John’s latest post is on point. Cohn’s inability or unwillingness to perceive the current threat to freedom posed by left-wing bullies should disqualify him from further service in the Trump administration.

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