Cohn: ‘I Have A Great Relationship’ With Trump, Especially On Corporate Tax Cuts

One of President Trump’s top economic advisers said Friday that he had a “great relationship” with Trump, despite his criticism of the President’s response to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville early last month.

“I have a great relationship with the President,” National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said in an interview on CNBC. “We’re working well together. We spent an enormous amount of time this week working on taxes. We were out in Missouri talking about taxes.”

“We spent time talking about taxes,” he continued. “We’re going to be out next week traveling and talking about taxes. He and I are spending time working together on all of the big economic issues that are going to drive economic growth and drive wages in this country.”

“That’s what he cares about. That’s what I care about,” Cohn added.

Much of the interview was spent discussing Trump’s recent speech in Missouri, on his administration’s tax priorities. Though Trump’s address lacked any detail, the President outlined the plan’s four major points: slashing corporate tax rates, allowing overseas corporate wealth to be repatriated with a huge tax discount, cutting “middle class” income tax rates, and simplifying the tax code by eliminating deductions.

Cohn was one of the administration’s loudest critics of Trump’s response to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12 — though the bar wasn’t very high, and the criticism came without singling out Trump by name.

After a counter-protester was killed, allegedly by a man who had earlier been photographed with a white nationalist group, Trump said that “many sides” were responsible for the weekend’s violence. Days later, he returned to the false equivalencies again, saying there were “very fine people” on both sides of the rally.

Cohn told the Financial Times afterward that he felt “compelled to voice my distress over the events of the last two weeks.”

“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK,” he said. “I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities.”

He also reportedly drafted a resignation letter, but never delivered it to Trump. Still, news of the letter ended up in the New York Times, essentially making Cohn’s point.

Trump reportedly stewed over the response, and has hinted at his anger publicly.

This post has been updated.