Lawrence Kudlow, the Newsmax Insider who provides economic and political commentary, is a leading candidate to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the transition.
The appointment would put an establishment Republican who served in the Reagan administration in charge of shaping economic analysis in the Trump White House.
Kudlow was an early supporter of Trump, helping to craft the campaign’s tax-cut proposals.
"Trump's plan to slash taxes, particularly business taxes, to deregulate, to get rid of Obamacare, to unleash energy, to sort of sweep clean corrupt Washington in my view has always been bullish for stocks rather than bearish for stocks," Kudlow told NewsmaxTV in November.
He also criticized the proposed policies of Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
"With Mrs. Clinton, this is the key point: She has no pro-growth. She's a taxer. She wants to tax rich people. She wants to tax Wall Street companies. She wants to tax financial-trading firms. If it moves, she's going to tax it," Kudlow told NewsmaxTV in August. “Hillary is the anti-growth person raising taxes and regulations, and the sooner that clarifies, the better off Trump's going to be."
He also expressed reservations with Mr. Trump’s critique of free trade and the Federal Reserve.
Kudlow started his career at the New York Federal Reserve before working in the Reagan White House as a budget official, according to the WSJ. He served as chief economist at Bear Stearns from 1987 until his resignation in 1994. For the last 15 years, he has appeared as a commentator and host on various CNBC business-news programs. He is a Newsmax Insider columnist and hosts a radio program.
The Council of Economic Advisers has little political power and its influence generally rises or falls with his or her relationship to the president, the WSJ says. The group has three economists, typically from the academic world. Kudlow would be the first CEA chair without a Ph.D.
People familiar with the discussions said a final decision hadn’t been made and said the transition team could still move in a different direction.
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