Donald Trump appoints Gary Cohn, another Goldman Sachs alum, to his administration

With Gary Cohn tapped to lead the White House National Economic Council, Trump's swamp gets deeper

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published December 9, 2016 5:28PM (EST)

(AP/Richard Drew/Evan Vucci)
(AP/Richard Drew/Evan Vucci)

President-elect Donald Trump announced Friday that the new head of his White House National Economic Council will be another Goldman Sachs executive.

Gary Cohn, who is president and chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs, joined the Wall Street firm in 1990 and has since served in leadership roles involving bond trading, according to Reuters. He eventually become co-head of broader securities at the company and was promoted to co-president in 2006.

By selecting Cohn to such an important role in his administration, Trump has given even more influence to Goldman Sachs in an administration that is already disproportionately stocked with its former associates. Trump's appointment for treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, was also a former Goldman Sachs executive, as is Trump's chief White House strategist and alt-right darling, Steve Bannon.

In light of Trump's famous rhetoric blasting Wall Street and promising to "drain the swamp," Twitter naturally pounced on the hypocrisy of Cohn's appointment.

Indeed, there is a double-irony here, as one of Trump's most prominent accusations against Republican rival Sen. Ted Cruz was that his wife used to work for Goldman Sachs.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

MORE FROM Matthew Rozsa

Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Donald Trump Drain The Swamp Gary Cohn Ted Cruz