(Bloomberg) -- Gary Cohn, the White House chief economic adviser who has been the focus of speculation he will soon depart, won't make much of a commitment to President Donald Trump.
Asked Friday how long he would commit to stay in his job, Cohn responded, “I'm here today.” A few minutes later, he added that he would be at the White House next week.
Cohn is quoted in Michael Wolff's “Fire and Fury,” an insider account of the Trump administration published Friday, complaining about Trump's lack of intelligence and focus. The book says Cohn considers Trump “dumb as” an expletive describing feces.
A White House official who spoke with Cohn said the assertion is ridiculous, Cohn never made the statement and it doesn't represent his view of the president.
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Wolff also published an email that he describes as “purporting to represent the views of Gary Cohn.”
“It's worse than you can imagine,” the email reads. “An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won't read anything - not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better.”
The email describes Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner as “an entitled baby who knows nothing.” Trump former chief strategist Steve Bannon is “arrogant” and “thinks he's smarter than he is.”
“I am in a constant state of shock and horror,” the email reads, according to Wolff.
Cohn said Friday that the email did not reflect his feelings about Trump or working at the White House. “You can say Gary Cohn has never written an email more than five words,” he said in a brief interview.
He said he would join Trump this weekend at Camp David to work on strategy for an infrastructure plan and a welfare overhaul.
To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Mike Dorning
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