At that time, Trump promised breakout growth that would top 3 percent, and 2018 appears on the way to hitting that number.

Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, derided the current gossipy culture in Washington that is more focused on scandal than it is on how well growth is doing under President Donald Trump . Trump spoke to the club just months before his upset victory in the November 2016 election.

"The U.S. is the hottest economy in the world today. We're crushing it," the former CNBC anchor said in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. "Capital is flowing here in huge quantities."

The U.S. economy is leading the rest of the world by returning to a basic approach of cutting taxes and letting businesses know that government is back on their side, top Trump economic aide Larry Kudlow said Monday.

"The single biggest story of this year, 2018, the single biggest news story is not a fictionalized version of what goes on in the White House and all the rest of it. The single biggest story is an economic boom that virtually everybody thought impossible," Kudlow said. "I believe the recent successes are not off-off. They will be continued and sustained because of the policies."

He spoke as the White House was set to slap 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports. Kudlow repeated that the administration is seeking fair treatment and a halt to intellectual theft by China.

However, economists and Wall Street analysts continue to list an escalated trade war as the biggest threat to the economic progress.

"People are blaming the president," Kudlow said. "I say, do not blame Trump for this. He inherited this trading mess. He's trying to fix it. He is a reformer. It is not an easy task."

While the trade negotiations transpire, the economy is showing substantial growth across a number of metrics. Kudlow pointed to high consumer and business confidence numbers, a job market that also is starting to show real wage gains and productivity numbers that are beginning to edge higher.

"I wish our friends around the world would emulate and imitate our policies of lower taxes and deregulation so they can pick their growth rates up as well," he said. "Cut taxes and the economy will grow. It's a model that's been used [that] worked in the '60s, '80s, '90s [but] didn't work the last 20 years because we moved in the wrong direction. Now we're moving back in the right direction. Now we're moving back in the right direction, the incentive model."

After the speech, Kudlow said in an interview with CNBC's that Trump has "not been satisfied" with the trade talks with China.