The stock market is selling off on fears that top White House economic advisor Gary Cohn could resign, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday.
In a short tweet Tuesday morning, Cramer simply said: "Cohn sell off."
U.S. stocks were lower Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 100 points, after a Bloomberg report said President Donald Trump is convinced Cohn will leave the administration if Trump follows through on his tariffs.
Last week, multiple media reports surfaced casting doubt on Cohn's future after he was unable to dissuade Trump from imposing steel and aluminum tariffs. The president announced plans for the tariffs on Thursday, sending stocks into a tailspin.
On Friday, Cramer warned that it would be a bad day stocks in the event that Cohn reigns.
"If you want to craft a scenario about [what] could be a tough moment for stocks, it would be if Gary left," Cramer said Friday. "He is someone who makes you feel that there is not as much chaos."
In a brief gaggle with reporters on Friday morning, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about whether the former Goldman Sachs executive is staying as director of the National Economic Council.
"I don't have any reason to think otherwise right now," she said at the time. "Gary was here yesterday afternoon, I talked to him in my office several times."
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. stock were higher after South Korea reported that North Korea said there's no need to keep its nuclear program as long as there's no military threat against it.
Cramer, in tweet before the Wall Street open Tuesday, warned investors not to buy the "rip opening."