Watching a risky career move unfold in real time.
Gary Cohn, the current head of the National Economic Council, likes to say he is a fan of bad decisions. “I’m really good at making mistakes,” he told business-school students at Sacred Heart University last year. And at American University, his alma mater, in 2009: “I always saw 95 percent of my great decisions start out as bad decisions.”
Last November, when Cohn walked into Trump Tower, he didn’t expect to be making decisions of any kind. He was there, like Floyd Mayweather before and Kanye West after him, because he had been summoned. In his case, to impart the macroeconomic wisdom he possessed as president of Goldman Sachs onto the newly elected president of the United States: Donald Trump, the man the smart money said would never win.
“It was crazy,” Cohn told a friend later of the meeting, which was supposed to last 15 minutes but stretched to an hour and a half. He found himself explaining to the former star of The Apprentice why a stronger dollar led to a weaker economy. The meeting concluded with Trump wondering aloud if he should make Cohn his Treasury secretary. This was awkward because Trump’s campaign-finance chair, Steven Mnuchin, whom Cohn had worked with in the same partner class at Goldman, was sitting right there and already had dibs on the position.
Ha-ha. Trump was only kidding.
Though seriously, he later asked, what about director of the National Economic Council? Would Cohn want that job?
“That I would consider,” Cohn told him.
Afterward, Cohn’s New York cohort would debate which part of this story was the craziest: Was it that Trump had offered the job to a 26-year veteran of Goldman Sachs—a bank whose greedy sibilance Trump had repeatedly invoked on the campaign trail, and whose CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, was targeted in a campaign attack ad that the Anti-Defamation League denounced as anti-Semitic?
This story is from the June 12–25, 2017 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 12–25, 2017 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Indecent Exposure
Jerrod Carmichael's reality series attempts to excavate his deepest flaws.
Grave Mysteries
Josh O'Connor searches for the afterlife as a sad-eyed tomb raider.
Not Her First Rodeo
Beyoncé's country album is a history lesson, a rallying cry, and a missed opportunity.
How'd You Make That?
Three masterpieces, from glimmer through struggle to breakthrough.
In the Belly of the Barbz
Fear them. Cheer them. Nicki Minaj fans are sticking by their queen.
At the Altar of Korean Fried Chicken
Coqodaq's owner calls it a cathedral. It feels more like a club.
WHO ATE WHERE
119 YEARS of PUNK BREAKFASTS, UPTOWN LUNCHES, DRUNKEN DEALMAKING, and IMPOSSIBLE RESERVATIONS
Arizona's Split Reality
Ground zero for the rigged-election conspiracy, the border state could decide both the fate of the Senate and the presidency.
98 MINUTES WITH...The Lavery Family
Beloved literary couple Daniel and Grace Lavery and their partner, Lily Woodruff, are all living and working full time in their Brooklyn apartment. Now, they have to find space for a baby.
Neighborhood News: Patrolling With the Rat Czar
On a smokeout with Vermin Enemy No. 1.