How Trump Gets to Yes

By DON ROLLINS

“We are in a mental recession, not an actual recession.” - Larry Kudlow, July 2008

In a forward thinking country not at the mercy of demagogues and corporatists, news that an uncompromising free-marketer was leaving a key federal post would be welcomed with aplomb.

An otherwise visionary president would be poised to correct course, and scour the talent pool for an economic advisor with conscience, spine and grassroots experience. Then start the vetting.

She or he would hold out for a proactive progressive: someone against deregulation and for corporate accountability; someone against isolationism and for international trade relations; someone against Beltway cronyism and for intradepartmental transparency.

A strong candidate would emerge from the short list. From there it’s job offered, job accepted. Baron robbers and inside traders beware.

This is, of course, but a liberal’s fantasy circa the still lamentable, not-to-be President Sanders. In his stead is a horror-show mirror opposite, right down to who and how to hire.

For while the gritty particulars of Trump’s chronic hirings and firings may have to wait until the inevitable ex-staffer tell-alls, we can be assured last month’s search to replace disaffected Director of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, looked nothing like the one above.

Which, after a series of reported rebuffs from other choices, explains how a TV president settled on a TV economist to take the reins of a $20 trillion economy.

Surreal as that pairing is, there’s a certain logic to the choice of Larry Kudlow as the administration’s new resident money guy. A longtime conservative and media pundit on all things market related, the former Democrat and Bear Stearns alum has also had practice getting the ear of multiple federal officials, including Ronald Reagan and candidate Trump. (Kudlow’s flair for optimism despite negative indicators - even a full blown recession - is credited for part of his appeal. One less than charitable observer dubbed him the “Billy Graham of economic consultants.”)

But sunny disposition notwithstanding, Kudlow is an entrenched, self-described “Reagan supply-sider” in step with the most draconic and unjust stipulations in the entire Trump tax code -- a champion for modest, temporary tax cuts for individuals and permanent, budget-busting passes for businesses and corporations.

For anyone still expecting the congenial Kudlow to be a conciliatory presence in bipartisan economic affairs, take note that upon assuming his new role, Kudlow promptly denounced his previous on air opposition to Trump’s tariff increases on steel. Such a quick pivot is indication Kudlow will almost certainly present, not shape, his boss’s major monetary decisions.

Having witnessed Trump’s hamster wheel of upper-level hirings, firings and resignations over the past fifteen months, we can be excused if our response to Cohn’s departure is another collective shrug of the shoulders. White House comings and goings have now become predictable, even formulaic: another day, another hail of tweets; another hail of tweets, another pink slip; another pink slip, another well connected ex-staffer already on retainer with a conservative think tank or lucrative investment firm.

But each time Trump’s capricious ax falls — or someone has enough remaining self-respect to walk — the more he weeds out candidates who like Gary Cohn, at least dare to speak their truth now and then. And what we’re left with is a White House full of people saying yes to the deconstruction of democracy in the interest of self.

Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister and substance abuse counselor living in Pittsburgh, Pa. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2018

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