WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Conservative economic analyst Larry Kudlow has accepted the job of White House National Economic Council director to replace the outgoing Gary Cohn, local media reported on Wednesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump offered Kudlow the job on Tuesday and he accepted it, according to CNBC.
Trump may officially announce his decision to tap the 70-year-old Kudlow as the next top economic advisor as soon as Thursday, the report said.
Cohn, a veteran Wall Street banker and pro-trade advisor, announced his resignation last week as he failed to head off Trump's new tariff plan on imports of steel and aluminum.
Kudlow, a free trade advocate and CNBC commentator, has also publicly criticized the president's tariff plan, but Trump said they agreed on most matters.
"I'm looking at Larry Kudlow very strongly. I've known him a long time," Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
"He now has come around to believing in tariffs as also a negotiating point. I'm renegotiating trade deals and without tariffs we wouldn't do nearly as well," Trump said.
Kudlow, who was an adviser to Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, is described by White House officials as someone who connects with the president personally and politically, according to the Washington Post.
The move comes after Trump ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, who would be replaced by Mike Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
