Trump Taps Kevin Hassett to Lead National Economic Council

by · NY Times

Trump Taps Kevin Hassett to Lead National Economic Council

Mr. Hassett defended Donald Trump’s tax cuts and trade policies in his first administration but has also acknowledged that tariffs can weaken economic growth.

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As director of the White House National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett would work closely with the Treasury secretary to push forward President-elect Donald J. Trump’s economic plans.
Credit...Alex Wong/Getty Images

By Jonathan SwanMaggie HabermanAlan Rappeport and Ana Swanson

President-elect Donald J. Trump selected Kevin Hassett on Tuesday to be the director of the White House National Economic Council, giving an adviser who served as his top economist during his first term a leading role in steering his economic agenda.

As the director of the N.E.C., Mr. Hassett will work closely with the Treasury secretary to push forward Mr. Trump’s economic plans, focused on cutting taxes, increasing tariffs and expanding energy production. The role is one of the most expansive in the administration and will put Mr. Hassett at the center of the most pressing policy debates.

Mr. Trump has been rounding out his economic team, having last week picked Scott Bessent to run the Treasury Department and Howard Lutnick, the former chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, to lead the Commerce Department. Those positions, unlike the N.E.C. directorship, require Senate confirmation.

Mr. Trump also selected Jamieson Greer, a lawyer and former Trump official, to lead the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

Mr. Greer is a partner in international trade at King & Spalding, a Washington law firm. During Mr. Trump’s first term, he served as chief of staff to Robert E. Lighthizer, the trade representative at the time. He was involved in the Trump administration’s trade negotiations with China, as well as the renegotiation of NAFTA with Canada and Mexico.

Although Mr. Trump has considered giving top economic jobs to Mr. Lighthizer and Peter Navarro, a China hawk who previously served as his trade adviser, the president-elect instead settled on candidates that some would view as more moderate.

Mr. Hassett was an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, when Mr. Trump chose him to serve as the administration’s top academic economist in 2017. In that role, he was a vocal defender of Mr. Trump’s tax cuts and trade policies. He departed the administration in mid-2019.

Since leaving Mr. Trump’s White House, Mr. Hassett has remained a close adviser to Mr. Trump, often lending credibility to economic ideas that many economists view as unconventional. Mr. Trump has called for even larger tariffs and has promoted tax cuts that some budget experts estimate could cost as much as $15 trillion over a decade.

While he has defended Mr. Trump’s trade policies publicly, Mr. Hassett brought a more traditionally conservative view of economics to the Trump administration and has acknowledged that tariffs — Mr. Trump’s trade weapon of choice — can weaken economic growth.

Mr. Hassett advised Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, during his presidential run. His research has long focused on the potential to expand economic growth and middle-class earnings by cutting corporate tax rates.

When Mr. Hassett was tapped to join Mr. Trump’s first administration, he drew criticism from some of Mr. Trump’s supporters because of his work that argued that immigration spurs economic growth.

Trump Transition: News and Analysis