Trump’s press conference proved too much for the members of the president’s Strategic & Policy Forum, a second advisory board, and the Manufacturing Council. Throughout the day, the CEOs of 3M, Campbell Soup and General Electric announced their resignations from the Manufacturing Council, as did representatives from the AFL-CIO and the Alliance for American Manufacturing president.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, told employees that the Strategic & Policy Forum had decided to disband. Trump preempted further resignations by abolishing both groups via Twitter: “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!”
Most significant, however, were the private reactions from House Speaker Ryan and Senate majority leader McConnell. Both Republicans called some of the CEOs and privately praised them for standing up.
* * *
On Friday, August 18, Gary Cohn flew by helicopter from East Hampton, Long Island, to Morristown, New Jersey, where it was raining heavily. He had to wait on the tarmac to get clearance to Bedminster. He was carrying a resignation letter. This was too much. Someone had put a swastika on his daughter’s college dorm room.
He headed to the clubhouse where Trump was going to address a member-guest tournament. Walking in to applause, Trump shook hands and made remarks, reminding everyone he had won the member-guest before. Trump and Cohn took food from the buffet and slipped into a private dining room.
“Mr. President,” Cohn said when they were alone, “I’m very uncomfortable with the position you have put me and my family in. I don’t want this to be a contentious discussion.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Trump said.
They debated what Trump had said and what he had not said.
“Before you say anything further,” the president said, “I want you to go back and listen to it again.”
“Sir,” Cohn replied, “I’ve listened to it like 30 times. Have you seen the video, sir?” Cohn said.
“No, I haven’t seen the video.”
“I want you to watch the video, sir,” Cohn said. “I need you to watch the video of a bunch of white guys carrying tiki torches saying, ‘Jews will not replace us.’ I cannot live in a world like that.”
“You go listen and you go read,” Trump said. “I’ll go watch the video.”
They agreed to discuss it after they had done their listening and watching.
“I said nothing wrong,” Trump said. “I meant what I said.”
“The Monday statement was great,” Cohn said. “Saturday and Tuesday were horrible.”
* * *
The next Monday at the White House, Cohn appeared at the Oval Office. Ivanka was sitting on one of the couches. Kelly was standing behind a chair.
Cohn was halfway into the Oval Office when Trump said, “So you’re here to resign?”
“Yes, sir, I am.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Trump repeated. He was leaving “because of your liberal Park Avenue friends. This must be your wife,” Trump said, blaming Cohn’s wife. Trump launched into a story about a great golfer. The golfer’s wife complained because he was gone every weekend. So he listened to her, and now Trump said the once-great golfer is selling golf balls and making no money, completing his blame-the-wife narrative.
“Everyone wants your position,” Trump continued. “I made a huge mistake giving it to you.”
The president continued with venom. It was chilling. Cohn had never been talked to or treated like that in his life. “This is treason,” Trump said.
Trump turned to trying to make Cohn feel guilty. “You are driving our policy and if you leave now, taxes are over. You can’t do this.” Cohn had spent months working a tax cut plan and was in the middle of negotiations on the Hill, a massive, complex undertaking. “How could you leave me hanging like that?”
“Sir, I don’t ever want to leave you hanging. I don’t want anyone to ever think I betrayed them. I have a reputation I care more about than anything in the world. I’m working for free here in the White House. It’s not about money. It’s about helping the country. If you think I’m betraying you, I will never do that.” And relenting, he added, “I will stay and get taxes done. But I can’t stay here and say nothing.”
Vice President Pence walked in and stood next to Cohn and touched him affectionately. They needed to keep Cohn, Pence said, but he understood the position Cohn was in. Yes, Cohn should say something publicly.
“Go out there and say whatever you want,” Trump said. “Mnuchin said something.”
Mnuchin had put out a statement: “I strongly condemn the actions of those filled with hate. . . . They have no defense from me nor do they have any defense from the president or this administration.” He quoted and commended Trump’s initial response to Charlottesville and added, “As someone who is Jewish . . . while I find it hard to believe I should have to defend myself on this, or the president, I feel compelled to let you know that the president in no way, shape or form believes that neo-Nazi and other hate groups who endorse violence are equivalent to groups that demonstrate in peaceful and lawful ways.”
Trump cited others who had distanced themselves from him.
“I don’t have a platform,” Cohn replied.
“What do you mean?” asked Trump.
The cabinet secretaries had press departments, Cohn said. “They can go out and make statements whenever they want. I’m an assistant to the president. I’m not supposed to be making press statements.”
“I don’t care,” Trump said. “Go to the podium right now, and make a statement.” He was inviting Cohn to go to the podium in the press room of the White House.
“I’m not going to do that, sir. That’s embarrassing. That’s not what you do. Let me do it my way.”
“I don’t care what way you do it,” Trump said. “I just don’t want you leaving until taxes are done. And you can say whatever you need to say.”
“Do you want to see it before I say it?”
Trump seemed to be of two minds. “Nope,” Trump replied at first. “Say whatever you want to say.” But then he asked what it might be. “Could we see it first?”
Cohn said he would work with the White House communications department.
On the way out of the Oval Office, General Kelly, who had heard it all, pulled Cohn into the Cabinet Room. According to notes that Cohn made afterward, Kelly said, “That was the greatest show of self-control I have ever seen. If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times.”
A few minutes later, Pence showed up in Cohn’s West Wing office. He reiterated his support. Say whatever you need and want to say, and continue to serve your country, he said, thanking him for everything.
Cohn chose to make his views known in an interview with the Financial Times. “This administration can and must do better. . . . I have come under enormous pressure both to resign and to remain. . . . I also feel compelled to voice my distress . . . citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK.”
Cohn could tell that Trump was angry because the president would not talk to him for a couple of weeks. At regular meetings, Trump would ignore him. Finally one day, Trump turned to him and asked, “Gary, what do you think?”
The inner administration shunning was over, but the scar remained.
* * *
To Rob Porter, Charlottesville was the breaking point. Trump rejected the better judgment of almost all of his staff. He had done that before. His perverse independence and irrationality ebbed and flowed. But with Charlottesville the floodgates just opened. For just the sake of a few words, he had drawn a stark line. “This was no longer a presidency,” Porter said. “This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is.” Trump was going ahead no matter what.