President Donald Trump's practice of using chaos as a management tool worked well in his business life, but it is taking a toll in the White House, The New York Times reported.
According to the Times, Trump's first 13 months have left White House staff demoralized and policy in disarray — and might next push out his chief economic adviser Gary Cohn.
"I always said that it was going to take awhile for Donald Trump to adjust as president," Newsmax Media chief executive Christopher Ruddy, a longtime friend of Trump told the Times.
In the business world, Trump relied on a small circle of colleagues and a management style that amounted to "trial and error — the strongest survived, the weak died," Ruddy told the Times, insisting Trump is finding his way.
But Cohn might have had enough, the Times reported.
According to the Times, Cohn, warned chief of staff John Kelly he might resign if Trump went ahead with a plan to introduce tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum.
The White House has not even completed a legal review of the measures, the Times reported, and Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs president, had lobbied fiercely against the measures.
The sudden opening of a trade war Thursday also rattled the stock market and enraged Republicans.
It was the second day in a row Trump blindsided Republicans and his own aides, the Times noted.
Trump embraced the stricter gun control measures backed by Democrats and urged lawmakers Wednesday to revive gun-safety regulations opposed by the National Rifle Association and most of his party.
Trump is "isolated and angry," the Times reported, quoting unnamed friends and aides, amid a feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the clash of family members and chief of staff John Kelly and the ongoing Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
"God punished me," Kelly joked of his move from the Department of Homeland Security to the White House during a discussion to mark the department's 15th anniversary Thursday, the Times reported.
The remark also summed up the prevailing mood in the West Wing, the Times reported.
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