Gary Cohn, former director of the National Economic Council, said President Donald Trump has to “get the government open.”
His comments came during a Thursday interview on “MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle”
“The government should be open,” he said. “To put 800,000 government employees out of work, to fight over a wall and immigration. . . We need immigration in the United States. We need legal immigration in the United States.
“The United States has been built on immigration. And that’s how we’ve grown our economy. That’s how we’ve continued to create jobs. Look at where we are in the United States right now. We have over 7 million job openings. We have less than 7 million unemployed people in the United States.
"If we want to continue to grow our economy, there’s only one way to do it - allow immigrants in the country. They should be legal. And we should have a mechanism for them to come into the country."
Cohn resigned in March as Trump’s top economic adviser. He left as the administration prepared to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum.
During his interview, Cohn did take time to praise the president. “Look, a lot of his ideas are phenomenal,” he said. “A lot of the things he’s doing are great. And people don’t understand he’s growing the economy. He’s creating jobs. He’s doing the right things.”
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