President Trump has painted himself as the savior of America’s coal industry and the countless miners who have been crushed by its demise. The comments by his chief economic adviser, however, sound like they were written by President Obama’s speechwriters, not Trump’s.
“For those miners, get ready because you’re going to be working your asses off,” Trump said in a May 2016 speech in front of a crowd holding up “Trump digs coal” signs.
While Trump has moved to rip up regulations burdening the coal industry, his most senior economic aide doesn’t look like he’s jumping on the coal train.
“Coal doesn’t even make that much sense anymore as a feedstock,” Gary Cohn said, aboard Air Force One on Thursday, referring to raw materials that get converted into a fuel.
Cohn, who serves as director of the White House National Economic Council, instead praised natural gas as “such a cleaner fuel” — and one that America has become an “abundant producer of.”
While Trump rarely talks up the potential of renewable energy, Cohn sounds like a fan.
“If you think about how solar and how much wind power we’ve created in the United States, we can be a manufacturing powerhouse and still be environmentally friendly,” Cohn said.
Cohn’s comments stand out, but not because they are inaccurate. They jive with what energy experts have been saying for some time. It’s just that Cohn’s comments sound like ones that were written by President Obama’s speechwriters, not Trump’s.