White House aides squirm at Trump’s rhetoric but stay put

National Security adviser H.R. McMaster and his deputy, Dina Powell, have been unhappy with Trump’s rhetoric on race over the past week, according to a White House official. But neither of them are considering resigning — they have told people it is too serious and dangerous a moment in the world for them to simply walk away.

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Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council and a former Democrat, told colleagues he was furious at having to stand by like a prop while Trump defended neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. But the former Goldman Sachs CEO has not yet vented that frustration publicly, and friends and colleagues said they assume he is staying on in order to be nominated chairman of the Federal Reserve. “Nothing has changed,” a second White House official said. “Gary is focused on his responsibilities as NEC Director.”

Trump’s longtime aide, Hope Hicks, who colleagues said is loyal to the president but not the nationalist program pushed by other aides, took a promotion the day after the president’s street brawl of a news conference. Assuming the position of interim communications director capped off an incredible rise for the 28-year-old political novice, who has never before held a job in Washington and in any other administration would likely not have been considered qualified for the post.

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