GARY COHN, who resigned Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, had been a standard bearer for the Wall Street ethos in an administration propelled to power by strident nationalism. But having lost a bruising internal battle over Trump’s sudden decision recently to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Cohn finally threw in the towel, confirming days of speculation that he was on the way out. In a brief statement, Cohn, 57, said it had been “an honor to enact pro-growth economic policies” — a reference to the US$1.5-trillion tax cuts of December. Trump praised him as “a rare talent.” Cohn had always been an uneasy fit, a former president of investment bank Goldman Sachs and long-time Democrat who clung to the traditional centrist, pro-business mindset. Tensions with Trump already erupted last year when Cohn, who is Jewish, said he considered resigning after Trump balked at condemning neo-Nazis and far-right extremists who had led a violent rally in Virginia in August. He also opposed Trump’s decision early last year to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Trump’s far-right supporters derisively dubbed Cohn “Globalist Gary” and in the end he was outgunned by West Wing protectionists who prevailed on Trump to please his political base of support by imposing tariffs. Cohn’s departure was likely to unnerve markets already rattled by Trump’s decision to impose punishing tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. Cohn had worked on Wall Street since the 1990s and was one of Goldman Sachs’ best known public faces, making frequent television appearances to talk about the health of financial markets and the global economy. Before joining the Wall Street powerhouse, the married father of three — who comes from a humble family background and struggled with dyslexia in his youth — started out selling windows and, in a twist of fate, had even worked in the steel industry. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cohn didn’t have the easiest childhood. “[It was your] typical Midwestern upbringing. Had dyslexia. It was the early to mid-1960s. Dyslexia wasn’t as well-known or understood as it is today. So clearly went through the formative part of my youth suffering with dyslexia,” Cohn told Jake Siewert, head of corporate communications for Goldman Sachs, during a December 2016 podcast. A teacher once told Cohn’s parents that if they were “really lucky and spent a lot of time” with Cohn, he might “grow up to be a truck driver.” Feeling misunderstood, Cohn said he “bounced around from school to school” until he found his home at Gilmour Academy, a Catholic, co-ed boarding school in Gates Mills, Ohio. “A couple of the brothers, Brother Lavelle and Brother Carl, really took an interest into me,” he explained. “Not because I was the best student in the class ... because I might have been the hardest-working kid in the class.” With help from his instructors and a lot of hard work, Cohn graduated from high school and looked forward to his future at American University in Washington, D.C., where he graduated with a business degree in 1982. Cohn didn’t have a job waiting for him after graduation, so he did what most college kids do and moved back into his parents’ home, according to a speech he gave at his alma mater. His first official gig outside of college was at U.S. Steel in Okron, Ohio, to appease his father. He was recruited by Goldman Sachs in 1990. Within his first four years on the job, he made partner, according to Business Insider. “That first year as partner, you know, I got to the point where I was trying to be a trader and trying to be a manager and trying to manage the business,” Cohn told the online news outlet. Cohn was president and chief operating officer (COO) at Goldman Sachs — second-in-command — before he left the company after nearly 30 years to join Trump’s team. Cohn was in charge of some of Goldman’s cash-cow businesses, including the division overseeing fixed income, currency and commodities. As president and COO, he was heir apparent to CEO Lloyd Blankfein since 2006. But after it became clear that Blankfein, who said last year he was “probably cured” of lymphoma, would not hand over the reins any time soon, senior figures in the bank began to consider Cohn’s future there, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. Critics of Cohn describe his work style as arrogant, aggressive, abrasive, and risk-prone. They describe his “6-foot 3-inch (190.5 cm) and 220 pounds (99.8 kg)” stature as intimidating, as he might “sometimes hike up one leg, plant his foot on a trader’s desk, his thigh close to the employee’s face and ask how markets were doing.” According to former Bear Stearns Asset Management CEO Richard Marin, Cohn’s arrogance is a problem. “When you become arrogant, in a trading sense, you begin to think that everybody’s a counterparty, not a customer, not a client.” Cohn’s supporters see these qualities as advantages. Michael Ovitz, co-founder and former chairman of Creative Artists Agency and former president of The Walt Disney Co., stated that he is impressed with Cohn. Ovitz said: “He’s a trader. He has that whole feel in his body and brain and fingertips.” Ovitz sees Cohn’s toughness as a “positive” value, explaining that a high-ranking executive can’t be “all peaches and cream.” Even though Trump rallied supporters during his campaign by denouncing Goldman Sachs, Cohn was one of five Goldman alumni to join the White House staff. The others included Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Steve Bannon, former chief strategist in the White House, and Anthony Scaramucci who was a member of Trump’s transition team, and spent a very few days on the White House staff before a famously vulgar interview prompted him to resign. In the campaign’s closing moments, Trump went as far as to use Blankfein’s face in a TV spot accusing elites of illegitimately holding the “l(fā)evers of power,” drawing outraged accusations of anti-Semitism. It was also a big risk for Cohn, who was making US$21 million a year as president and COO at Goldman Sachs. But it was a risk he was willing to take. Cohn was a forceful public advocate for one of Trump’s flagship policies: the December tax cuts, which industry and investors have cheered, but opposition Democrats have denounced as a giveaway to the rich that will balloon budget deficits. “It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people,” Cohn said in a terse statement on his resignation. A lifelong Democrat known for having progressive social views, he had no political expertise and barely knew Trump. But during an unconventional job interview, Trump was impressed with Cohn’s knowledge of economics and the markets, say people who were briefed on the discussion. As his chief economic adviser, Cohn quickly ingratiated himself to the president. He gave blunt, practical advice, say people familiar with their interactions, and built a team of experts on issues like infrastructure and taxes. He pushed Trump to remain in the Paris climate accord, a battle he ultimately lost. He argued frequently over Trump’s “America First” approach to trade, jousting most recently with the White House aide Peter Navarro and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over the harm he believed nationalist economic policies would generate. Shortly after his inauguration, Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Obama-era trade agreement with a number of Asian nations. Then, on at least three occasions last year, Cohn rebuffed Navarro’s attempts to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Cohn was also part of a group of White House aides who effectively blocked the metal tariffs on several occasions. Some of Cohn’s struggles on the job were painfully public. During an interview with CNBC, he once described working for Trump as a “dream come true.” Yet as the top economic adviser to a president who is often contradictory on matters of policy, he sometimes had to finesse Trump’s errors, a role that critics regarded as damaging to Cohn’s reputation.(SD-Agencies) | 