Trump Econ Chief Brags About Americans ‘Spending More on Everything’ — Not Just Gas

Trump White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett bragged to Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo that Americans are not just spending more at the gas pump — they’re spending more on everything.”

Hassett is the cheerful face of President Donald Trump’s economic messaging operation — albeit a messenger prone to curious boasts like the one where he celebrated the surge in credit card debt.

On Tuesday morning’s edition of Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria, Hassett hit Bartitomo with another gem. Amid rampant inflation and deadly polls on the economy, he boasted that Americans are “spending more on everything” as they spend more at the gas pump:

FOX ANCHOR MARIA BARTIROMO: You know, I’m looking at some morning notes this morning and BTIG is writing about the impact of a drop in oil on consumers.

And the analyst there writes that with the oil prices going down, the consumer sector could see a meaningful near-term tailwind.

What would be your best expectation in terms of the impact and how quickly an impact of a fall in oil prices might have on the consumer?

NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR KEVIN HASSETT: Oh, it’ll be right away.

And again, like the 300 nautical mile thing is what the way you think about Europe and Asia and everything else, but in the U.S., you know, we’re basically self-sufficient in energy.

And the reason why the gas prices have been going up, for example, is that jet fuel prices are so high because of the disruption, say in Singapore, that our refiners have been turning the knobs towards jet fuel and away from gasoline a little bit. They can stop that pretty much as soon as the oil starts to land in Singapore.

And so I think that we should see very quickly energy prices, gas prices go back to where they should be.

And the thing that I’ve seen when I look at credit card data and other things that I can get for the private sector is that while people have been spending more money at gas stations, they’ve been spending money on everything else.

Which means that they’re still very, very optimistic about the state of the economy. And they should.

If you look at GDP now, right now, it’s north of 4%. And so despite this disruption, all the momentum that we built with the big, beautiful bill and AI and everything else is really what the main economic story of the US is.

Watch above via Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!