'You're looking handsome, Larry': How the reality TV president found the perfect idiot to be his chief economic adviser

Larry Kudlow isn't an economist. He just plays one on TV.

Larry Kudlow.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew)

"I'm looking at Larry Kudlow very strongly," President Trump said the other day, and as a result of all that strong, powerful, muscular looking, Trump finally selected Kudlow to be the new chief of his National Economic Council. It was a decision perfectly in line with Trump's general philosophy of personnel, which is that he turns on Fox News, decides who sounds good, and then hires that person. In fact, when Trump called to offer the job, he told Kudlow he was looking at his picture on television. "You're looking handsome, Larry," he said.

We've gotten so used to cable television being the primary means through which Trump gets information, decides what's important, and determines who should advise him that it's become almost cliche, a source of easy jokes. But it's yet more evidence that the most powerful person in the world views everything through the lens of a forum where our worst impulses are cultivated and the shallowest people are given the most exposure and influence.

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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.