What we know about Donald Trump: He thinks only of himself. He considers any other person's worth to be directly contingent on that person's loyalty to him. His mood, opinions, and decisions can turn on a dime, and will often change based on what he last watched on TV. Even his own staff has repeatedly fessed up to these things.
So it's no surprise at all that National Economic Council director Gary Cohn expressing even the mildest of alarm over Donald's complete and utter failure to renounce white supremacy means that Gary Cohn is now the target of Donald Trump's infinite ire: Cohn is now out of the running to head the Federal Reserve, despite previously being one of the top contenders.
According to Wednesday’s report, Trump cooled on elevating his top economic adviser to the role after the former Goldman Sachs president said he felt “distress” over Trump’s response to the racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month.
This is the fundamental rule of the Trump administration: Government exists to promote Trump acolytes and punish Trump detractors. It is precisely as stupid and vacuous as his critics warned it would be; at no point has the man risen above his own petty personal squabbles. We likely have our next three-month continuing resolution solely because Donald Trump wanted to punish Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan during a meeting.
The more things go badly for Trump, the more likely he will be to retreat into this core of small-minded pettiness, reversing his own stances according to whatever would best harm the people who have insulted him during any given week. And there’s almost no chance things won’t be going badly for Trump—so buckle up.