President Donald Trump is unlikely to tap his top economic adviser Gary Cohn to chair the Federal Reserve, two sources close to the President told CNN.
A GOP source close to the White House also told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Cohn is “more likely to get electric chair than Fed Chair.”
Cohn, the National Economic Council director, was once a top contender for the powerful position, but his public rebuke of Trump’s response to the violence at a Charlottesville white supremacist rally last month made him fall out of the President’s good graces.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Cohn was unlikely to be nominated as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s term expires in February 2018, leaving Trump with an increasingly narrow window to make his pick.
In the nearly two weeks since Cohn said “the administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning” hate groups, Trump has stewed over the comments.
Sources close to the White House have signaled in the last week that Cohn appears unlikely to be removed due to his critical role on tax reform and Trump has been warned against ousting Cohn for that same reason. But the President has not hid his discontent and he has been known to buck cautionary advice.
As a member of the “Big Six,” Cohn is one of two administration officials representing the administration in tax reform deliberations with congressional GOP leaders.
Cohn is viewed as a critical element of the administration’s tax reform push both inside the administration and on Capitol Hill, where sources said Cohn has developed strong relationships with key players in the tax reform debate.
