White House’s Kudlow Again Says Dollar Intervention Is Off the Table

(Bloomberg) -- White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration would not undertake currency intervention, one week after President Donald Trump explicitly said he had not ruled out taking steps on the dollar.

“We have ruled out any currency intervention,” Kudlow said in a Bloomberg Television interview Friday, answering a question about Trump’s July 26 dollar remarks which directly contradicted his own comments a few hours earlier on the topic.

“He said having a strong dollar, there’s a reason it’s so good,” Kudlow said of the president. “I stand by those remarks.”

Trump told reporters July 26 that “I didn’t say I’m not going to do something” on the dollar. Kudlow added Friday that the president’s frustration lay with actions by other countries.

“The president is concerned, correctly in my view, that other countries may be manipulating their currencies, perhaps to get some short-term trade advantage. We don’t like that. We want a level playing field,” Kudlow said. “We are the world’s reserve currency, and we aim to keep it that way.”

--With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Jonathan Ferro.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Haar in Washington at rhaar3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alister Bull, Jeff Kearns

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