One of President Trump’s top economic advisers, Larry Kudlow, has been hospitalized after suffering from a heart attack.
Trump took to Twitter to update the public on Kudlow’s situation just prior to his historic meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on Tuesday.
Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack. He is now in Walter Reed Medical Center.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2018
“Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack. He is now in Walter Reed Medical Center,” the president detailed.
Kudlow, 70, had just returned to the United States following his attendance at the G7 summit in Canada. His wife reportedly told the Washington Post that “He’s doing fine” and that his doctors are “fabulous.”
“Larry is currently in good condition at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and his doctors expect he will make a full and speedy recovery,” she continued. “The President and his Administration send their thoughts and prayers to Larry and his family.”
Kudlow has been a central figure in the trade disputes that have engulfed the Trump administration and were on the top of the agenda at the G7 meetings. In the end, Trump pulled his endorsement of a joint communique put together by all seven nations.
“The gentlemen here are the legendary Larry Kudlow and the legendary John Bolton. We had a good meeting on defense, environment and tariffs, which is what we’re here for,” Trump said in his statement following the G7 meetings, alongside his two advisers.
“The United States has been treated very, very unfairly. There was no reason that this should have happened,” Trump said of various trade agreements. “In fact, I congratulate the other leaders of these other countries for so crazily being able to make these trade deals that were so good for their country and so bad for the United States. But those days are over.”
He later took to Twitter, lambasting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for making “false statements” in his final news conference.
Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018
Trudeau declared Saturday that Canada would “move forward with retaliatory measures” on July 1 in response to the Trump administration’s decision to place tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, the European Union and Mexico.
“I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it something that we absolutely will do,” Trudeau said. “Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”
But Kudlow himself called Trudeau’s comments “a betrayal,” following what he believed to be very productive meetings with the Canadian PM.
“He really kind of stabbed us in the back,” Kudlow told CNN.