President Trump’s former director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, is a man of issues and ideas. Stressing that disagreements with President Biden aren’t personal, he lends credibility to criticism of administration policy — and his argument for Mr. Trump’s return.

In a conversation Monday at the York City of the Sun, Mr. Kudlow, a columnist of the paper, described Mr. Biden as “very kind to me” during their long association in Washington. “He was a guy with a great sense of humor in those days, but he’s changed.”

Mr. Biden’s shift, Mr. Kudlow told the Sun’s publisher, Dovid Efune, has seen him go “way off on the left of the spectrum, much more than any Democrat in my lifetime.” The result is “a very collectivist approach” that Mr. Kudlow dubbed “big-government socialism.”

“Bidenomics,” Mr. Kudlow said, is a “top-down bureaucracy,” exemplified by “heavy spending, heavy taxing, heavy regulating, and heavy inflating.” The policy is pushed by leftists whom Mr. Kudlow described as “nutjobs” that few, even in deep-blue Gotham, take “seriously.”

“The Democratic Party has,” Mr. Kudlow said, “unfortunately decayed to the point where they’re letting all these identity groups, fringe groups” set policy, “like worrying about the Dearborn, Michigan, congressional district or the ones outside of Minneapolis.”

“Who could run a national party on the basis of these people?” Mr. Kudlow asked. “But in a sense, Biden is.” Those ideologues — marginalized even by President Obama — now “dominate” on issues from spending and deficits to open borders and foreign policy.

“The inexcusable mistake of this administration,” Mr. Kudlow said, “is their relationship with Iran,” which he sees as leading to the October 7 attack by Hamas. Again, Mr. Kudlow blamed a “weird, fringe wing” of his former party, the Democrats, that’s naïve about Tehran. 

“We took out their top terrorist leaders,” Mr. Kudlow said of the Trump Administration, “and would have taken out others.” If Mr. Trump makes good on his comeback, Mr. Kudlow sees a return to “embargoes that were enforced” and a terrorist sponsor that’s “broke.”

Mr. Kudlow noted that objections from Arab countries are muted about Israel. He judged it as both the fruits of Mr. Trump’s Abraham Accords, which he believes would have included Saudi Arabia had Mr. Biden lost, and their assessment of Iran’s belligerence.

“Israel must annihilate Hamas,” Mr. Kudlow said to applause, “and that’s not a political view. That’s not Democrat-Republican. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with its own set of issues — security issues — for this country and for Israel.”

Economic theory was prominent in Mr. Kudlow’s remarks, but there was none of the dryness associated with the topic. After saying that the dollar “must remain the world’s reserve currency with that central role,” he sketched the real-world impact of seeing it eclipsed by slow growth.

Mr. Kudlow described Mr. Trump’s free-trade philosophy as seeking “reciprocity” not protectionism. For the former president, he said, tariffs are a tool to achieve fair access to foreign markets not an end in themselves.

Mr. Biden hasn’t dared remove Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Beijing, Mr. Kudlow noted, but has failed to take advantage of their impact. “China is in a recession,” he said, calling it “just the best news I’ve ever heard,” because they can’t invade Taiwan with a “terrible” economy.

At 76, Mr. Kudlow seemed the passionate, patriotic “kid” he recalled being in President Reagan’s Office of Management and Budget. In response to a question about cutting his TV teeth on “The McLaughlin Group,” he grew emotional about his long career.

McLaughlin, Mr. Kudlow recalled, encouraged him to “say what you have to say” on issues. “He made me a mensch,” Mr. Kudlow said, and played a role in shepherding him into recovery. Today, the economist is 29 years sober.

Mr. Kudlow laid out a clear vision for an issues-based campaign by Mr. Trump. What role the free-market advocate will play in a second term, if any, remains to be seen. But all in attendance at the Sun’s offices saw that he’s still ready, willing, and able to play the game.