Gary Cohn and Steven Mnuchin successfully kept President Trump from making any disruptive trade actions during the tax reform fight. Now that tax reform is done — and Trump remains hell-bent on tariffs — they're making new arguments to try to mellow his hardwired trade-warrior impulses.
Cohn and Mnuchin are now appealing to Trump's obsession with the record-breaking run of the stock market under his presidency, according to four sources with direct knowledge.
Early this year, President Trump invited Mark Halperin to dinner in the White House residence. Seated around the table were Trump's inner circle, including Jared Kushner, Hope Hicks, Reince Priebus, Stephen Miller, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, and Sean Spicer.
They spent a rollicking evening reminiscing about the campaign, according to two sources in the room.
Sears Holding Corp., the parent company of Sears and Kmart, reportedly didn't run any national television ads during the critical holiday season, per The Wall Street Journal. The last national ad for Kmart ran on November 24 and the last for Sears ran on November 25. Last year, the company ran $8.4 million in national ads for Sears and $6.5 million for Kmart during December.
Why it matters: With most of Sears' sales still focused on its struggling brick-and-mortar stores, the decision not to run television ads — especially during the critical holiday period — has caused controversy amongst its executive teams. While its competitors like Macy's and J.C. Penney spent tens of millions in national television advertising dollars, Sears focused its advertising budget on targeted digital and social advertising.
