Larry Kudlow.Photo: Fox Business
It’s a wonderful life for Larry Kudlow, who feels “blessed” to be making his return to cable television after nearly three years in the White House.
The former top economic adviser to PresidentDonald Trumpand longtime news commentator premiered an eponymous economic news program on Fox Business last Tuesday, becoming the first top Trump staffer to land a mainstream media gig while other aides faced calls of condemnation after leaving the administration.
“I’ve been very blessed in my lifetime,” he tells PEOPLE. “I’m turning the page and it’s a new chapter in my career.”
Kudlow carved out a relatively low profile in his role within a controversy-ridden West Wing (though his remarks about theCOVID-19 pandemicand his predictions about a rapid U.S. recovery werecriticizedin 2020 along withthe rest of the Trump administration).
But now? Kudlow chuckles with a pride as he recalls the past three years advising Trump, 74, and his economic policy.
“It was kind of a job of a lifetime,” he says. “It’s a big job; it’s a handful. But I loved doing it.”
Donald Trump and Larry Kudlow in 2018.Mark Wilson/Getty
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Kudlow, a self-proclaimed workaholic, reveled in the challenges the former president consistently threw at his staff, he says — striking a tone quite unlike the accounts of some other top aides like Gens.John KellyandJim Mattis.
“He’s a hands-on guy,” Kudlow says. “He’d call you up, it could be early in the morning, like 7 or 7:15 am you might get a call from him. [Trump would] say, ‘I want to see you in the late morning [with a new report].’ And you’re off to the races.”
“I loved that,” Kudlow says. “Who wouldn’t love that?”
He says Trump “gave me thorough, complete access” and that Kudlow “was in and out of [the Oval Office] constantly.”
In Kudlow’s telling, though, the president was “unconventional.”
“The actual process — I learned it years ago when I worked for [former PresidentRonald Reagan] — there’s a certain governmental, inside-wiring process that I don’t think changes that much,” Kudlow says.
Although the economic advisercriticized Trump’s leadershipduring the January Capitol attack (and some other officials resigned), Kudlow says their relationship was unharmed. Kudlow has also criticized Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.
“We left on very good terms,” he says, noting the last time he spoke to Trump was a 20-minute conversation on Jan. 14 — a week before the former president begrudgingly left the White House to make way for PresidentJoe Biden.
“At some point,” Kudlow says of Trump, “We will reach out to him and see if he has an interest in [appearing as a guest on the program].”
Larry Kudlow.Fox Business
So far,Kudlowhas been something of a White House reunion. The show’s first week featured guests like former Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Trump Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Trump National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
“Yes,” Kudlow says, there will be many guests from the Trump administration appearing periodically — “but not only.”
“We will be reaching out [to Democratic guests],” says the self-described “free-enterprise guy.” “There will be a whole universe of people, believe me. I have a lot of friends in the Democratic Party and we’ll get them on.”
On Tuesday, the day his show premiered, Kudlow wascaught on a hot-mic calling “b——-“on Vice PresidentKamala Harrisafter the network aired a clip in which she said the Biden administration was “starting from scratch” with COVID-19 because of President Trump’s handling of the pandemic. (Kudlow apologized for saying a “bad word.")
“There’ll be disagreements,” Kudlow tells PEOPLE about his show’s politics. “That’s fine, but let’s try to do it based on facts and civility and respect.”
As for himself, Kudlow is “very happy” to be back living in New York City with wife Judith Pond Kudlow, an oil painter trained in classical realism, whom he married in 1986.
“I still don’t believe in retirement; I don’t understand the word,” he says. “I just adore working. Work is a virtue. What else am I going to do?”
Kudlowairs weekdays (4 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET) on Fox Business.
source: people.com
