When allegedly smart people say ridiculous things, you wonder, “Why?”
That’s when Trump supporters Larry Kudlow, an economist, and the Shark Tank face man Kevin O’Leary, a real estate developer, made ridiculous comments trying to defend Trump in his current case involving his New York State tax fraud case.
For the record, Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump and his company guilty of financial fraud in February 2024 in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. As a penalty, Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million plus interest and banned him from doing business in New York for three years.
Trump has lied several times about whether he has or does not have the cash due in the civil fraud case to meet the bond. His lawyers say he does not have the money, but he says he does in his social media posts.
As of this writing, observers say Trump is lying again and will not be able to meet the bond by the deadline.
Still, the facts of this case didn’t stop Trump defenders Larry Kudlow and O’Leary from making ridiculous claims in a Fox TV interview.
In the interview on the Kudlow show, O’Leary said that if the New York AG seizes Trump’s assets because he cannot post bond, it will be un-American and set a bad example for American capitalism. He also said, “This case has nothing to do with Trump anymore.” Really? Who does it have to do with? Like other Trump propagandists, O’Leary wants to make Trump’s tax fraud behavior a microcosm for other injustices against white-collar criminals.
“Seizing assets is what happens in Venezuela; it doesn’t happen in New York,” O’Leary said. While no one appointed him a USA spokesman, O’Leary said the seizure of any Trump property instead of posting the bond would defile the “essence of the American brand.” O’Leary is a defender of Trump, but he is no billionaire. In 2024, O’Leary’s estimated net worth was $400 million.
Why Propagandists Say Dumb Things
As a wealthy real estate developer, O’Leary has heard of home foreclosures, evictions, car repossessions, and garnishments. As a Canadian, all of these legal actions also exist in Canada.
O’Leary said these outrageously dumb statements in front of Larry Kudlow, an economist with an uneven past who was once the Director of the National Economic Council in the Trump administration. In that position, Kudlow continued in his past role as the spin doctor of economic events, always making Trump and the Republicans look good and the Democrats evil. That’s what Kudlow does. In his earlier career as the chief economist at Bear Stearns, Kudlow’s job was to tell clients the most optimistic news to sell whatever Bear Sterns was pushing.
For his part, Kudlow has made some very wrong economic predictions in the past.
Kudlow’s Bad and Intentionally Misleading Economic Predictions
As a top economist in the Trump administration, Kudlow is also known for his lousy predictions and outrageous statements. The New York Times, Money Magazine, and MarketWatch list his predictions. These predictions probably would have gotten him demoted if he was in the private sector, but in the Trump White House, data and factual accuracy are not a problem. Kudlow is an expert in data fiction and lying.
Kudlow was highly regarded in the Trump White House since he conducted a disinformation campaign during Trump’s presidency.
Kudlow: No Victims in LIBOR Price-Fixing Scandal
In a 2012 Club for Growth panel discussion on CNBC, he famously said there were no victims in one of the largest price-fixing scandals of the 20th Century involving the London Interbank Offering Rate (LIBOR). LIBOR is one of the most widely used indices that dictates everything from mortgages to car loans. His statement that there were “no victims” of this price-fixing scandal on national TV shows he will say anything to protect the free-market system and big banks.
In a short article in Slate.com, ex-New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer called Kudlow out on protecting Barclays and was just amazed that a CNBC anchor would knowingly try to mislead the public about the LIBOR price-fixing debacle.
In the article, Spitzer quotes Kudlow as saying:
“I mean, maybe you’re right, the victim was the lender, Barclays. But I don’t know. The Justice Department says this could be a criminal prosecution. I don’t get that. Who are the victims? Who are the victims?”
When he said this, Kudlow was either lying or misinformed. He may not have had the exact numbers. Still, primary research (if he had any ethical standards) would have shown that LIBOR controlled the rates in over $350 trillion in derivatives swaps contracts worldwide, including those managed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and most adjustable ARM contracts and other sub-prime mortgages), the TARP loans, the $40 billion in the Treasury’s purchase of AIG preferred stock, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), and covered everything from corporate borrowing to consumer auto loans to credit cards.
Kudlow: What is the 2008 Housing Bubble?
According to the Newsweek article, Kudlow was also “spectacularly wrong on the biggest economic turning points in modern history,” the 2008 housing fraud and mortgage collapse. Here, Kudlow ridiculed people who predicted the mortgage debacle and resulting economic recession as “bubbleheads.”
Kudlow: Wrong Again on Stagflation
Kudlow also targeted the Obama administration’s economic policies as leading to “1970s-style stagflation. This never happened, and under Obama, the US saw its lowest inflation in two generations and the lowest interest rates in history until the 2020 Fed policies were enacted to rescue the economy from the COVID-19 virus.
Smart People As Propagandists
Since we must assume that Kudlow and O’Leary are intelligent people, we can ask why they are trying to mislead the public.
Both men are Republicans and avid Trump supporters. They must feel they have to mislead to protect Trump or ridicule the New York Attorney General and, in the process, sow chaos and distrust into the legal proceedings.
If this is the case, both men are propagandists who have no self-respect for their reputations. In short, they are ideal Trump supporters.
