David Harsanyi writes at the Federalist that the Trump administration upgrades its team by adding Larry Kudlow as head of the National Economic Council.
For fans of pro-growth policies — deregulation, low taxation and open trade — it’s great news for obvious reasons. Kudlow has been a decades’ long champion of these ideas and those with coherent philosophies tend to offer some stability and continuity. This administration could use more of those things, not less.
Kudlow is also a noticeable upgrade over the outgoing Gary Cohn, not only because the former has been a far more consistent voice for free markets — Cohn’s support of carbon tax and a VAT tax, and his rumored moderating disposition on tax reform were all worrisome clues — but because the former TV host and syndicated columnist is better equipped to sell those ideas to the public and lawmakers.
Kudlow, it’s been reported, also played a role in persuading senators to support tax reform despite the intense political opposition and hysterical warnings about the bill’s homicidal intent and supposed enduring unpopularity. Kudlow’s problem with the Trump tax bill was that it wasn’t cut enough on the individual side. …
… Trump hired Kudlow even though only last week he co-wrote a piece for National Review arguing that imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports was tantamount to imposing sanctions on your own country — “a crisis of logic.” Kudlow, a former White House budget aide for Ronald Reagan, has long held positions on NAFTA and trade in general that are diametrically opposed to the president’s. Which undermines the idea that Trump is rigidly opposed to any dissent within the administration.