As the war dragged into its third month, Kudlow continued to downplay rising gas prices and growing inflation. On his May 13 show, Kudlow said, “I don’t care about a couple of months of $4 gasoline. Honestly, I don’t care if the inflation rate goes to 5%. This is the defense of freedom and civilization and Western values, Judeo-Christian values.”
Kudlow, who served as director of the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, admitted that “even if the war comes to a conclusion, it’s going to take a while” for costs to come down. But “it’s a small price to pay — a couple months of higher gasoline prices, etc. — for wiping out the scourge of the Earth,” he explained, referring to Iran.
Kudlow continued to insist “it’s a small price to pay. I don’t give a damn.” He similarly dismissed “a lot of moaning and groaning and hand-wringing and so forth” about inflation, adding, “I don’t care.”
After the April CPI report showed inflation rose to its highest point in nearly three years, Kudlow instead pointed to successes in the stock market. “I think the United States’ economy is strong,” he said. “I don’t care — we have a couple bad months of inflation, it means nothing. It means absolutely nothing.”
“We may get two or three more bad months, OK?” he continued. “But when the war is over and they are destroyed, those prices are going to come down. Everybody knows that.”