TV personality Larry Kudlow, hired as Trump’s economic adviser, declares China deserves ‘comeuppance’
CNBC’s Kudlow, a long-time Trump loyalist, called for an international ‘trade coalition of the willing’ to go up against China for breaking rules ‘left and right’
A little more than a week after US President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, quit in response to Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imported metals, the White House announced he was being replaced with TV personality and analyst Larry Kudlow.
Kudlow, a staunch free-trader with experience on Wall Street and known for his hard-charging style, wasted no time in laying down the law to China, saying Beijing deserved its “comeuppance”.
Named Wednesday to be the new director of the National Economic Council, Kudlow shares the US president’s penchant for media promotion and, perhaps most important, has proved to be a loyal supporter and informal adviser from Trump’s early days in the campaign.
Kudlow, a familiar commentator on CNBC who worked in the Reagan administration’s budget office, enters an administration revolving door that on Tuesday saw the abrupt firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
The 70-year-old Kudlow joins a Trump trade and economics team that includes chief trade official Robert Lighthizer, who is renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the recently ascendant China hawk Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser.
Kudlow, too, favours a tougher line with China on trade.
“I must say as somebody who doesn’t like tariffs, I think China has earned a tough response not only from the United States,” Kudlow said Wednesday on CNBC after confirmation of his appointment.
