Gary Cohn reportedly said he used only 20 percent of his brain capacity working for Trump
Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs executive and National Economic Council to President Donald Trump, reportedly wasn't in a position to give his all at the White House.
Cohn reportedly spent his time reviewing the basics of economics at the White House, and remarked that he was working at just 20% of his capacity.
Gary Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council and President Donald Trump's top economic adviser who announced he would soon leave the administration, reportedly wasn't in a position to give his all at the White House.
In February, after Trump gave a well-received State of the Union address and another big speech at Davos, Cohn reportedly told Chief of Staff John Kelly that "I'm working at like 20% of my capacity," a source told the news website Axios.
Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive, spent much of his time working for Trump explaining conventional wisdom and broadly accepted concepts. Recently, he pressed Trump not to go ahead with tariffs on metal imports, a battle he appears to have lost.
Though Cohn was part of the successful push for Trump's tax cuts, he later only made few appearances pushing for infrastructure spending.
"Cohn said that if Trump could put him in a role where he would use 80% or 90% of his brain capacity, he'd stay," Axios wrote.
"It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform," Cohn said in a statement announcing his departure. "I am grateful to the President for giving me this opportunity and wish him and the Administration great success in the future."
