Lawrence Kudlow is succeeding Gary Cohn as President Trump’s top economic adviser — aka Director of the National Economic Council. Businessman and philanthropist billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Hillary Clinton’s run for president, tweeted “Congrats Larry!” linking to The Wall Street Journal‘s coverage of Kudlow’s appointment. The Cuban shout out surprised some — but despite supporting Clinton’s candidacy, Cuban holds many center-right views, especially on economic issues. Indeed, when ideas about Cuban running for president first started surfacing, the billionaire told people that he would like to run as a Republican (if he ran at all). Even so, given Cuban’s consistent criticism of Trump, some of the Shark Tank star’s fans are asking on Twitter if Cuban’s tweet was serious or sarcastic. After all, in December 2007, Kudlow wrote in the National Review: “There’s no recession coming. The pessimistas were wrong. It’s not going to happen.”
But the congratulations aren’t a big surprise — Kudlow and Cuban have seen eye-to-eye on plenty of things. As a journalist, Kudlow has been covering Cuban since at least 2006, when an article Kudlow wrote for the National Review called “Mark Cuban Launches Stock-Fraud Website” had the unambiguous subtitle: “This is a great story.” Kudlow, the 70-year-old conservative commentator (CNBC’s The Kudlow Report), launched his career as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He went on to work at the Office of Management and Budget during the Reagan administration. In 2016, Kudlow endorsed Trump for president and defended Trump’s plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico.
Congrats Larry ! https://t.co/tiv5Jn7CMy
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) March 14, 2018
