White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has been doing more and more of the talking lately when it comes to the proposed second stimulus check, and therefore all eyes are on him. Kudlow works for the Trump administration but does not always back up the president’s commentary when it comes to coronavirus aid, creating some confusion for Americans. Many are looking for a better understanding of Kudlow.
Kudlow is the Director of the United States National Economic Council — a job he took over in 2018. Before that, he was well-known as a financial analyst on cable news, with his own show on CNBC and his writing published in many places. He took over his White House job from Gary Cohn, who had publicly criticized Trump and disagreed with him on international trade policies.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Kudlow does not always seem to see eye-to-eye with President Trump either. In fact, Kudlow was an impassioned Democrat for much of his career, working or volunteering for Democratic candidates in the northeast throughout the 1970s. However, in 1981 he took an economic job with the administration of President Ronald Reagan and has identified as a Republican ever since.
Kudlow was born and raised in New Jersey in a Jewish family. He attended college at the University of Rochester in upstate New York, and briefly enrolled in a Masters’s program at Princeton University back in New Jersey. He has worked in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut before arriving in Washington, D.C. Kudlow has been a well-known figure in politics over the years, even coming close to running for the United States Senate himself. However, after leaving the Reagan White House he technically did not work in politics again until Trump called on him to replace Cohn in 2018.
Kudlow has been heavily criticized, along with the rest of the Trump administration for many of the economic developments of the last two years, including Trump’s trade war with China and its impact on farmers. Of course, the economic fall-out of the coronavirus pandemic is chief among his concerns. On Feb. 25, 2020, Kudlow appeared on CNBC to say that the pandemic would not reach the U.S., saying: “We have contained this. I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight.”
Now, many people are hoping Kudlow will have the answers when it comes to the White House’s stance on a second stimulus check. Many do not like what he has to say, however. On Friday, Kudlow told Fox Business that the second installment will most likely be worth less money than the original $1,200 payment.
This directly contradicted what Trump himself told Fox Business — that he wants the second stimulus check to be worth more than the first. Kudlow has often gone on TV with contradictions like this, and no explanation as to why he and the president are on different pages.
Either way, a second stimulus check will be written and negotiated by the Senate and Congress, with the White House getting little official power to weigh in on the final result. President Trump has said he is ready and willing to sign another stimulus check, and all eyes are on Kudlow for updates.
