NEC director expected to return to work Monday

Larry Kudlow, director of President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council, is expected to return to work Monday, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. He has been recovering at home after suffering a mild heart attack earlier this month.

“We are really excited to have him back,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said of Kudlow’s return in a statement to CNN.

Minutes before last week’s meeting with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in Singapore, Trump announced on Twitter that Kudlow had been hospitalized for a heart attack and was being treated at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington. In the days leading up to his heart attack, Kudlow had been traveling with the President in Canada for a tense G7 summit and defending him ardently on television.

Kudlow, a former Wall Street economist and television host, joined the administration three months prior and quickly became a favorite of Trump’s, who praised him effusively.

“I’m very happy to have Larry Kudlow with us,” Trump said during an April summit with the prime minister of Japan. “He’s a special man. He’s been a friend. I’ve been on his show many, many times over the years. And we’ve had a lot of fun together. We haven’t always agreed, but I noticed lately Larry is agreeing more and more with me, which makes me quite happy.”

Kudlow, 70, was discharged from the hospital June 13. Sanders said at the time that his recovery was going “very well.”

“The President and the administration are happy Larry is back home and look forward to seeing him back to work soon,” Sanders had said.