CNBC’s Larry Kudlow Emerges As Frontrunner To Become Donald Trump’s Chief Economic Advisor: Reports

Patrick Hipes

Updated Tue, March 13, 2018 at 12:24 AM UTC

Larry Kudlow, the longtime CNBC personality and an economist in the Reagan administration, has emerged as the frontrunner to become President Donald Trump’s new head of the National Economic Council, the White House’s top economic advisor. The post was vacated last week by Gary Cohn.

Reports surfaced earlier Monday that Kudlow was favored by Trump for the job; CNN this evening quoted sources saying the President had made his decision, but there has been no official word from the White House. Still, Trump often does his own communications work via Twitter, bypassing the usual channels, to announce major decisions. Neither the White House or Kudlow are commenting on the reports.

Kudlow is currently a senior contributor at CNBC after being host of the business news network’s long-running primetime show The Kudlow Report, and before that Kudlow & Cramer with Jim Cramer. He also hosts the weekly nationally syndicated radio program The Larry Kudlow Show. His emergence is notable because he publicly came out against Trump’s import tariff plan for steel and aluminium — the plan that proved the last straw for Cohn, who resigned March 6.

Cramer said today on CNBC that his former co-host was “the leading contender” for the post, that he had spoken to Trump and would “absolutely” take the position if offered.

Like Cohn, Kudlow is a free trade advocate, co-writing an op-ed in the National Review earlier this month saying of Trump’s tariffs: “…now we are imposing sanctions on our own country, putting up tariffs supposedly to make Americans more prosperous. If ever there were a crisis of logic, this is it.”

Entertainment News

CNBC’s Larry Kudlow Emerges As Frontrunner To Become Donald Trump’s Chief Economic Advisor: Reports

Recommended articles