Trump Friend Barrack Talks Polo, Gary Cohn in the Hamptons

(Bloomberg) -- In the Hamptons on Sunday evening, Tom Barrack, the billionaire real estate investor and friend of President Donald Trump, weighed in on Gary Cohn’s prospects to run the Federal Reserve.

"Will he get it? Absolutely, if he wanted it, he will absolutely have it," Barrack said at a polo match and asado benefiting the Robin Hood Foundation. "Honestly, he’s certainly capable and qualified for that job. But I think there’s other things that he can do that are even more important."

"I agree with that," added Joe DiMenna, who hosted the event with his wife Diana. "Gary has so many skills. Not that the Federal Reserve chair doesn’t need skills, but it’s a different skill set.” Other roles “need somebody like Gary who can be strong, opinionated, get things done, politically skillful," he said.

Read about Gary Cohn’s brief Trump break at Hamptons Party for Pink

Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president who left the Wall Street firm to become the president’s top economic adviser, has been mentioned by Trump as a candidate to run the Fed after Janet Yellen’s term ends. Economists view him as the front-runner for the job, according to a Bloomberg survey last month. Cohn, in an interview Friday on Bloomberg TV, advocated lower corporate taxes.

Real-estate entrepreneur Jeff Greene said he didn’t see the appeal of running the Fed, which he described as an "academic job" with "endless meetings" and "minutia."

"You see the Federal Reserve chairman, she comes up from hibernating once every month or two," Greene said. "Does Gary Cohn want to hibernate for two months at a time and come up six times a year to say, here’s what I’m doing?"

In the polo match, Barrack’s team lost to DiMenna’s, though both men walked away with champagne and cufflinks by Cartier.

"It’s like polo Disneyland," Barrack said, surveying the stretches of grass dotted with families. Little kids were taking pony rides and climbing aboard a full-scale mock-up of the Cessna Citation Latitude brought by NetJets.

"We’ve always tried to make it a family thing," DiMenna said. "Polo is really a family sport, it’s not this elitist thing."

The DiMennas founded the Hamptons Cup, benefiting the anti-poverty work of Robin Hood, with professional player and model Nacho Figueras. Since its inception in 2012, the event has raised more than $3.5 million, Diana DiMenna said. Steve Mnuchin, now the Treasury Secretary, attended the event in 2013.

As the barbecued meats and large bowls of paella were served, Larry Robbins, the hedge-fund manager and chairman of Robin Hood, said goodnight. Robbins was going home to eat tuna caught by one of his sons. He held his toddler in his arms.

"He’s going to take his little mallet and go out in the field," Robbins said.

"See you in a few years, little man," DiMenna said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, Christian Baumgaertel

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