One Goldman Takeover That Failed: The Trump White House
As the Trump adviser and former House speaker Newt Gingrich put it last year, “It would be interesting to see to what degree the New York liberals change Trump
and to what degree Trump changes the New York liberals.”
Now, the verdict would appear to be in: Mr. Trump remains the impulsive, freewheeling provocateur in chief,
and much of the Goldman contingent has been banished or is leaving the White House.
Mr. Bannon was fired from his White House job last summer
and fully excommunicated after publication this month of Michael Wolff’s tell-all book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which is filled with inflammatory quotes from Mr. Bannon.
The newly inaugurated President Trump tapped Steven T. Mnuchin as treasury secretary, Gary D.
Cohn as director of the National Economic Council and Dina Powell as White House adviser.
“Everyone was wondering who would dominate the White House: Steve Bannon or the Manhattan
mafia,” Mr. Gingrich told me this week, referring to the Goldman alumni.
Asked how long he would stay at the White House, Mr. Cohn said only, “I’m here today and I’m here next week.”
Professor Smith of N. Y.U.