Trump Reportedly Offered Gary Cohn Top CIA Job But Then ‘Abruptly Changed His Mind’
Earlier this month, Gary Cohn resigned from his position as the White House chief economic adviser after losing his battle with President Donald Trump over steel and aluminum tariffs. When Cohn left, the president said the former Goldman Sachs executive would “maybe come back” after he went out and made a bunch more money.
Well, it appears that he very nearly came back to lead the top spy agency in the country. But, alas, POTUS “abruptly changed his mind.”
According to Politico, Cohn had been informally offered the position of CIA director and the investment banker had accepted. Long before firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump had already decided Mike Pompeo would be Tillerson’s replacement. Therefore, in recent weeks, the president had sought advice from trusted allies on whether Cohn would make a good replacement.
Once Trump decided to can Tillerson and nominate Pompeo as secretary of state, however, Cohn’s name was not offered up as Pompeo’s successor for the CIA’s top job. Instead, that went to deputy director Gina Haspel.
While Cohn has absolutely no experience in intelligence gathering, he did let associates know that he was interested in both the CIA job or secretary of state. He’s also told others he would come back to the administration for the “right big job.”
Per Politico’s sources, Trump felt Cohn would be a good fit to be CIA chief, which is why he tentatively offered Cohn the position. It isn’t clear why he suddenly second-guessed himself and went with Haspel in the end.
[image via screengrab]
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