A resignation by top White House economic advisor Gary Cohn would be bad for the stock market, CNBC’s Jim Cramer warned on Friday.
“If you want to craft a scenario about [what] could be a tough moment for stocks, it would be if Gary left,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” “He is someone who makes you feel that there is not as much chaos.”
Multiple media reports surfaced this week casting doubt on Cohn’s future after he was unable to dissuade President Donald Trump from imposing steel and aluminum tariffs. Trump announced plans for tariffs Thursday, sending stocks into a tailspin, re-approaching their early February lows. The Dow was down 270 points Friday morning.
In a brief gaggle with reporters on Friday morning, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about whether the former Goldman Sachs executive is staying as director of the National Economic Council.
“I don’t have any reason to think otherwise right now,” she said. “Gary was here yesterday afternoon, I talked to him in my office several times.”
As long as Cohn remains in the White House, Cramer said, there’s a case for investors to invest in several U.S. stocks.
“Gary Cohn did a lot to get through the tax package, Gary Cohn [is a] steady hand,” Cramer said.
Earlier Friday, CNBC senior contributor Larry Kudlow, a confidant of President Trump, said he’s been urging Cohn to stay. On Thursday, Kudlow said Trump’s tariffs are a “bad omen” and could cause “major calamity.”
“I have to tell you, personally, I am urging Gary Cohn to stay and fight for another day. He’s done a great job,” said Kudlow, a longtime economist who served in the Reagan administration.
