Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett defended the strength of the U.S. economy under President Donald Trump, saying that it was thriving despite the Federal Reserve’s tight monetary policy.
Trump’s Economy ‘Is Booming’
Hassett said that the “economy is booming right now because of Trump’s policies,” and not because of the Federal Reserve, while appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.
“The Fed has amongst the highest interest rates on Earth right now, and President Trump is frustrated with that,” he said, while noting that this has nothing to do with the Department of Justice’s decision to pursue a “criminal indictment” against Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Asked whether the Fed deserved any credit for not getting in the way of positive developments, Hassett pushed back, calling instead for “a little bit more introspection” from central bankers.
“We let inflation get out of control,” he said, referring to the peak 9.1% year-over-year inflation in 2022, the highest reading since 1981. “It’d be nice to know how that happened, and nice to know that we have a plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Hassett pointed to strong growth and factory activity as evidence that the administration’s policies are driving momentum. “We got GDP now north of 5% in the fourth quarter after 2.4% the previous quarter,” he said, adding that Trump’s policies “are really working.”
Tariffs Driving Manufacturing Job Losses
The latest jobs report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, paints a different picture, with employers adding just 584,000 jobs during the whole of 2025, which marks a steep decline from 2 million jobs in 2024, alongside the weakest annual wage growth outside of a recession since the early 2000s.
Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi blames this on Trump’s trade and tariff policies, saying, “This reflects the direct effects of the tariffs on manufacturing, transportation and distribution,” on Sunday, in a post on X.
Joel Griffith, a Senior Fellow at Advancing American Freedom, noted that the manufacturing sector has recorded eight-straight months of job losses, starting in April, when Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs were first announced.
“Trump’s tariffs are hammering the manufacturing sector,” he said, in a post on X last week, the very sector that they were meant to save.
Photo courtesy: Evan El-Amin on Shutterstock.com
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