Lawrence Alan Kudlow (born August 20, 1947) is an American conservative broadcast news analyst, economist, columnist, journalist, political commentator, and radio personality.

He is a financial news commentator for Fox Business and served as the Director of the National Economic Council during the Trump Administration from 2018 to 2021.

In 1981, after previously volunteering and working for left-wing politicians and causes, Kudlow joined the administration of Ronald Reagan as associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget.

[5] After leaving the Reagan Administration during the second term, Kudlow returned to Wall Street and Bear Stearns, serving as the firm's chief economist from 1987 until 1994.

In the late 1990s, after a publicized battle with cocaine and alcohol addiction, Kudlow left Wall Street to become an economics and financial commentator – first with National Review, and later hosting several shows on CNBC.

[8] Although his undergraduate qualifications and credentials pertaining to economics have been called into question as he completed only an undergraduate degree with a major in history (aside from his foreign policy coursework at Princeton), Kudlow claims that the particular history curriculum that he completed at Rochester dealt heavily with economic themes, especially pertinent to trade policy.

[5][9] In 1971, Kudlow enrolled in the master's program at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, but he left before completing his degree.

[10] In 1976, he worked on the U.S. Senate campaign of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, along with Tim Russert, against Conservative Party incumbent James L. Buckley, brother of William F. Buckley, Jr.[11] During the first term of the Reagan administration (1981–1985), Kudlow was associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a part of the Executive Office of the President.

[12][10] He was a member of the board of directors of Empower America, a supply-side economics organization founded in 1993 and merged in 2004 with the Citizens for a Sound Economy to form FreedomWorks.

Kudlow is also a founding member of the Board of Advisors for the Independent Institute and consulting chief economist for American Skandia Life Assurance, Inc., in Connecticut, a subsidiary of insurance giant Prudential Financial.

[14] Kudlow served as one in a rotating set of hosts on the CNBC show America Now, which began airing in November 2001.

In January 2005, Cramer left to host his own show, Mad Money, and the program's name was changed the next month to Kudlow & Company.

The program went on hiatus in October 2008, returned in January 2009 as The Kudlow Report, and ended its run on CNBC in March 2014.

Starting in 2004, he also appeared on The John Batchelor Show as a co-host on Tuesdays and as a substitute, until he left to become an economics advisor to President Trump.

[17][18] In March 2018, Donald Trump appointed Kudlow to be Director of the National Economic Council, succeeding Gary Cohn.

The CBO later found that the tax cut reduced revenues and that the resulting deficits increased by $1.9 trillion after accounting for macroeconomic feedback.

"[25][26] Kevin Hassett, chairman of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers, noted days earlier that the deficit was "skyrocketing", which is consistent with the analysis of every reputable budget analyst.

On the 34th day of the shutdown, Kudlow asserted that such workers were "volunteering" to work for their love of the country and "presumably their allegiance to President Trump.

"[45] In the summer of 2019, Kudlow twice asserted that the proposed United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement would increase GDP by half a percentage point and job creation by 180,000 per year after ratification.

The International Trade Commission analysis that he was apparently referencing estimated that the Agreement would increase GDP by 0.35% and jobs by 176,000 six years following ratification.

Another study by the Congressional Research Service found that the Agreement would not have a measurable effect on jobs, wages, or overall economic growth.

"[47] In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests against racism and police brutality, Kudlow said, "I don't believe there is systemic racism in the U.S."[48] In February 2021, Larry Kudlow joined the Fox Business Network (FBN) as a host, following his tenure as Director of the National Economic Council under President Donald Trump.

His program is broadcast at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern Time, providing viewers with economic insights, market analysis, and discussions on fiscal policy with various experts and politicians.

[58] Days before Bush signed his tax cut plan in June, Kudlow predicted it would cause future budget surpluses to rise.

[9] On June 26, 2002, in a commentary in NRO titled "Taking Back the Market – By Force",[62] Kudlow called for the United States to attack Iraq, saying Saddam Hussein had "weapons of mass destruction at his disposal" and that "a lack of decisive follow-through in the global war on terrorism is the single biggest problem facing the stock market and the nation today".

[67] In the mid-1990s, Kudlow left Bear Stearns and entered a 12-step program in order to deal with his addictions to cocaine and alcohol.

[71] White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders stated that Kudlow had been admitted to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and that he was "doing well" and expected a "full and speedy recovery".