Trump Giving Medal of Freedom to ‘Trumponomics’ Economist Arthur Laffer

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump will award economist Arthur Laffer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, bestowing the nation’s highest civilian honor on the conservative academic who has become synonymous with supply-side economics.

Laffer, the 78-year-old who served as an aide to President Ronald Reagan, advised Trump during his presidential campaign and is the co-author of the book “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy.”

He is best known for his eponymous "curve," which theorizes that taxation rates beyond a certain level can prove counterproductive by disincentivizing work -- an argument frequently cited by Republican lawmakers who seek to reduce tax rates.

Laffer co-authored his book on Trump with Stephen Moore, whom Trump had planned to nominate to the Federal Reserve Board before GOP lawmakers raised objections over past controversial comments regarding women and minorities. More recently, Laffer has echoed Trump in arguing that the Fed should lower interest rates.

But even Laffer has warned Trump on some of his more controversial economic moves.

Laffer last year told CNBC he is "a huge fan" of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whom Trump appointed but since then has frequently criticized, and contemplated trying to remove, for raising interest rates.

Last year, Laffer, Moore and Larry Kudlow, who has since been appointed the president’s economic adviser, penned a commentary for CNBC that argued “tariff hikes are really tax hikes.”

They wrote that they weren’t persuaded by the administration’s claims that steel tariffs were needed for national security reasons and that a "tit-for-tat" trade breakdown with Canada and Mexico could hurt all three countries and trigger "a stock market meltdown."

Laffer will receive the Medal of Freedom on June 19, according a statement from the White House. He’ll be the first recipient since Trump gave the award to professional golfer Tiger Woods in early May.

To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net;Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Joshua Gallu

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