Delingpole: Kudlow; Pompeo…Trump’s Picks Just Get Better and Better…

Larry Kudlow’s appointment as President Trump’s next Economic Czar has been anti-endorsed by at least two of my favorite foaming leftists.

Here’s Jonathan Chait in New York Mag:

Trump’s New Economic Adviser Lawrence Kudlow Has Been Wrong About Everything for Decades

Here’s Soros-funded Think Progress:

Trump’s new economics director is a climate denier who thinks animals can ‘snuggle’ under pipelines.

Could there be any more encouraging a sign that with his latest appointments, Trump is right over the target?

I wrote the other day that Mike Pompeo was a great choice for Secretary of State – way better than the corporatist swamp denizen Rex Tillerson. But I think I’m even more excited about Kudlow.

First, it means that the battle for the soul of the Trump administration’s economic policy has been won by the Art-Laffer-style supply siders. (This was by no means a given: remember all those GOP experts who told us in the early days that Trump was just a Democrat wearing Republican clothing…?).

Second, Kudlow – like Pompeo, unlike their respective predecessors Tillerson and Gary Cohn – is a climate change skeptic.

Here, for example, is Kudlow in April last year, totally getting why Trump had to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord:

“So Trump is saying, ‘I’m here to defend America, and we are going to continue our explorations and our technology. We’re going to strive for clean coal, we’re going keep natural gas fracking, we’re going to keep oil, etc.’ The market loves that because the market wants growth,” Kudlow said.

Climate skepticism, it should be stressed, is not a marginal issue of relevance only to a few obsessives. It’s the touchstone, politically and intellectually, for pretty much everything that matters.

If you are a climate skeptic, it almost inevitably follows that you are: not a victim of groupthink; open-minded; well-informed; intellectually curious; a believer in empiricism and the scientific method; a foe of government waste; brave; economically astute (because ultimately it’s about money, not science); politically bold (because for politicians going against “the Consensus” is still much the easier, more career-safe path).

Trump hasn’t always got his appointments right first time. (Personally, I think Cohn and Tillerson were not remotely what the base was looking for when they voted Trump). But one of the many impressive – and underrated – qualities of the President is his ability to learn from and correct his mistakes.

Also, because he’s a maverick who no more belongs to the GOP Establishment than he does to the Democrats or anyone else, he makes far, far braver decisions than any more conventional Republican would ever have done.

I’m reminded of a conversation I had with one of Trump’s transition team back in December 2016, after Trump had won the presidency but before he took office.

He said:

“If any of the more conventional Republican candidates had won this presidential race, they would all have backtracked and disappointed on the climate issue. Trump’s different. Trump means it.”

One of these days, historians might get round to acknowledging Trump as one of the greats. Till then, those of us who supported him early in the day, when it was still unfashionable, will just have to do with the satisfaction of knowing we’re right.