Trump to Name Hassett National Economic Council Chief

President-elect Donald Trump is said to have selected Kevin Hassett to lead the National Economic Council, a role spearheading the new administration’s tax, trade and spending agenda, according to people familiar with the matter.

(Bloomberg) — President-elect Donald Trump is said to have selected Kevin Hassett to lead the National Economic Council, a role spearheading the new administration’s tax, trade and spending agenda, according to people familiar with the matter.

A fixture of conservative economic circles for two decades, Hassett previously served as a senior adviser to Trump and the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the president-elect’s first administration, and he vigorously defended the Republican’s signature tax policies. He also backs the Republican’s slate of tariff proposals.

The appointment won’t become final until announced by Trump. Hassett did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

“President-Elect Trump has made brilliant decisions on who will serve in his second Administration at lightning pace. Remaining decisions will continue to be announced by him when they are made,” Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

As the NEC Director, Hassett would work closely with hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee, to implement the White House’s economic plans.

Though often confused with the Council of Economic Advisers — the White House’s in-house economic think tank — the National Economic Council is the more hands-on policy-making team. The job is now held by Lael Brainard, a former vice chair of the Federal Reserve. 

President Bill Clinton created the position in 1993, after a campaign based on the premise that the most important job of the president is “the economy, stupid.” Its job is to coordinate economic policy — and thus it often has to manage the competing internal and external factions trying to influence the president.

That part of the job may prove particularly challenging in a second Trump administration, as the president-elect will have to deliver on a long list of ambitious — and sometimes contradictory — campaign promises. 

Economic Analysis

During his tenure, Hassett, 62, often provided positive economic analysis that supported Trump’s trade proposals and disputed statistics that undermined Trump’s claims about his administration’s economic record. His office promoted alternative data than those provided by the Congressional Budget Office, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.

In an October interview with the Financial Times, Hassett said the Federal Reserve “let inflation get out of control” and that having an independent central bank is important.

Trump has proposed a long list of tax carve-outs to court tipped workers, Social Security beneficiaries, car buyers and workers earning overtime pay. At the same time, he’s promised to cut the budget deficit by empowering tech mogul Elon Musk to slash $2 trillion in spending, and grow the economy while imposing punitive tariffs on trade partners.  

While the ranks of the CEA are drawn from academic economists, the NEC is often headed by business executives. In Trump’s first term, former Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn filled the role for about 14 months before handing it over to Larry Kudlow, who worked as an economist and managing director at Bear Stearns before becoming a conservative commentator on CNBC and, more recently, Fox Business News.

But the job description can vary from president to president and even director to director. Cohn was a quiet force behind the passage of Trump’s signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, while Kudlow was a higher-profile cheerleader for Trump’s economic record.

Both Cohn and Kudlow sparred with Peter Navarro, who carved out his own trade policy fiefdom at the now-defunct National Trade Council.

Hassett has authored papers on tax policy and energy investments throughout his career and as a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He now serves as a fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. 

—With assistance from Gregory Korte and Stephanie Lai.

(Updates with Trump transition statement in the fourth paragraph)