Despite President Trump’s deep affection for tariffs, the commander in chief is fundamentally a “free trader” and an “internationalist,” his former top economist, Larry Kudlow, insisted during an exclusive interview on the latest episode of “Pod Force One.”
Kudlow, who served as director of the National Economic Council from April 2018 through the end of President Trump’s first term, contended to Post columnist Miranda Devine that the president wants a world without trade barriers of any kind.
“Donald Trump is a free trader. He is. I have had long, soulful talks with him about this point that started ten years ago,” the host of Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow” explained.
“Fundamentally, he’s an internationalist, first of all. Always did business around the world. This isolationist stuff is just completely wrong, as we’ve seen,” he went on. “But on trade, fundamentally, he would like a world of zero tariffs or equally low tariffs, ending non-tariff barriers and various government subsidies.”
Trump, 79, has railed for decades against foreign countries “ripping off” the US through “unfair” trade arrangements. During his 2024 campaign, the Republican proudly declared that the “word ‘tariff’ is the most beautiful word in the dictionary.”
Months into his second term, Trump has raised tariffs to their highest levels in over a century.
In recent decades, orthodox conservativism has frowned upon protectionist trade policies, such as tariffs. Kudlow, 78, was among those outspoken critics of tariffs prior to joining the first Trump administration.
But the New Jersey native explained that his perspective began to shift as he realized the extent to which foreign countries set up barriers against accepting American goods.
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“The guy who had a big influence on me is [former US Trade Representative] Bob Lighthizer,” Kudlow recounted. “Lighthizer and I were two Reagan kids. That’s when we first met. But he really showed me the differentials, what India was charging in tariffs, and what China was charging in tariffs.”
“I had a sort of right-mainstream free trade view, but I didn’t know much about trade, and the differentials were enormous.”
Kudlow also told Devine that “we don’t live in a world of free trade” and “have not lived in such a world probably since the few years following World War II.”
“If you go back and look, the United States, everybody was helping the Allies recover — in Europe, in Japan and so forth. But that didn’t last long, and the world trading system has been broken for decades and decades.”
Full Episode
Trump’s team wrapped up preliminary trade deal frameworks with many of America’s top trading partners over the summer, with negotiations still ongoing with China and India.
“This global trade war retaliation never happened,” Kudlow proclaimed. “…Instead of flocking to China, they flocked to the United States. And our trump card here was always our massive economy. Not just our consumer economy, but our massive economy. And Trump knew that.”
“It’ll change. It’ll go up, it’ll go down. Sometimes there’ll be tariffs, sometimes there won’t be, but it’ll be much improved,” Kudlow said. “… It’s going to take a while, and as I say there’ll be bumps on the road, but he’s well on his way to a big victory.”
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