Breakfast with Larry Kudlow, including a little loving banter
| Washington
Larry Kudlow almost needs no introduction to longtime cable TV viewers and, more recently, Trump-watchers. For years, Mr. Kudlow hosted a show on CNBC all about markets, politics, and economic policy 鈥� bringing his Wall Street background, service in the Reagan administration, and exuberant persona to the table.
So we were delighted to bring Mr. Kudlow 鈥� now director of President Donald Trump鈥檚 National Economic Council 鈥� to our own table April 3 for his first Monitor Breakfast. He arrived at the St. Regis carrying a thick folder of news articles, a sign of all the economic topics that were swirling: the U.S.-Mexico border, China trade, the Federal Reserve, Venezuela.
Some of the reporters present were already on a first-name basis with Mr. Kudlow. And at times, the banter became playful. When a discussion of the Fed鈥檚 independence turned to a comment President Trump had reportedly made on the phone to Fed Chair Jay Powell 鈥� 鈥淚 guess I鈥檓 stuck with you鈥� 鈥� Mr. Kudlow turned toward a journalist at the table: Nick Timiraos of The Wall Street Journal, who broke that .
鈥淣ick, I was thinking about you this morning; you're never far from my thoughts,鈥� Mr. Kudlow said, to laughter.
He continued: 鈥淵ou know, the president may have said that lovingly, very lovingly, you know what I mean? Think about that.鈥�
鈥�Did he say that lovingly?鈥� a reporter asked.聽聽
鈥淲ell, I wasn鈥檛 on the conversation,鈥� Mr. Kudlow said. 鈥淚'm just opening up that possibility. It might have been a very loving, affectionate, kind of a huggy thing on the phone.鈥�
My thoughts turned to Joe Biden, but thankfully the discussion didn鈥檛 go there. We stuck with economic matters, and when the breakfast ended, the headlines started cranking. Damian Paletta of the Washington Post led with the . Bloomberg went with for a post-Maduro Venezuela. The Hill led with Mr. Kudlow鈥檚 assurance that the president still backed for the Fed.
Mr. Kudlow, in fact, stayed well beyond the end of the breakfast, answering questions in a scrum of reporters. He鈥檚 known for being media-friendly; no surprise there, given his background. Now, as the president鈥檚 top economic adviser, he often strolls out to 鈥減ebble beach,鈥� the bank of TV cameras permanently positioned outside the West Wing, for interviews. White House briefings are rare these days, and so his 鈥渄riveway gaggles鈥� with reporters can be especially valuable.
Most intriguing to me is how an 鈥渙ld free-trader,鈥� as Mr. Kudlow calls himself, could work for the more protectionist Mr. Trump. Of course, the two are old friends. But in our breakfast, Mr. Kudlow explained how he has come to see the value of tariffs as a negotiating tool. That鈥檚 how I led my breakfast story.
My colleague Mark Trumbull quoted Mr. Kudlow extensively in his story: 鈥淲hy capitalism in America now needs its defenders.鈥�
To watch the C-SPAN video of our breakfast, .
And stay tuned for our next two breakfasts: Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on May 8; and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on June 19.
