Trump taps commentator Larry Kudlow to replace Gary Cohn as economic adviser

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - U.S. television commentator and economic analyst Larry Kudlow said on Wednesday he had accepted an offer from President Donald Trump to become the White House's top economic adviser, replacing Gary Cohn.

"The president offered me the position last evening and I accepted," Kudlow told Reuters, adding he thought the official announcement would come on Thursday.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters that Trump spoke to Kudlow, 70, on Tuesday, but she would not confirm whether he had offered him the job. "No personnel announcements," she said.

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The appointment of Kudlow as director of the National Economic Council would not be a major surprise.

Trump told reporters on Tuesday that Kudlow, a Republican who served as an economic adviser to former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and also worked on Wall Street, had "a very good chance" at being selected to replace Cohn.

Kudlow, an informal advisor to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, had criticized the president's decision last week to place steep tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, saying they would harm steel-consuming producers. Cohn also opposed the tariffs.

But Trump said on Wednesday that Kudlow had "come around" to view tariffs as a useful tool for renegotiating trade deals. (Reporting by Makini Brice Additional reporting by Jeff Mason Editing by Paul Simao)

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