Kudlow is front-runner for Cohn’s job: CNBC

Larry Kudlow is the leading candidate to replace Gary Cohn as President Trump’s top economic adviser, CNBC’s Jim Cramer reported Monday. 

Cramer, who has worked with Kudlow at the network on the show “Kudlow and Cramer,” reported that Kudlow has not been formally offered the job, but is the leading choice among the president and some of his advisers.

Kudlow declined to comment to CNBC, where he works as a senior contributor.

{mosads}Cohn resigned last week amid a dispute with Trump over trade policy. The former Goldman Sachs executive — a strong supporter of free trade — said he would leave the administration after Trump committed to imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports despite pushback from U.S. lawmakers and international officials.

Kudlow, who served as an informal adviser to the Trump campaign, predicted during an interview aired Sunday that all of Europe would likely be exempted from the tariffs Trump signed last week.

When asked last week about the possibility of joining the Trump administration, Kudlow told CNBC he didn’t “want to talk through all those scenarios.”

Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation economist who worked with Kudlow on Trump’s campaign tax plan, told The Hill that Kudlow is “definitely one of the top three” candidates to become the next director of the National Economic Council, but Trump has yet to make a decision.

Moore praised Kudlow, saying that he played a “huge role in getting the tax bill through.”

“Larry’s a great communicator,” Moore said. “He’s one of the best economic voices out there for free-enterprise economics.”

Prominent supply-side economist Arthur Laffer also said he hoped Kudlow gets the position.

“I think he’d be the perfect person for the job,” he said.

Updated at 12:13 p.m.