Bloomberg Reporter Grills Trump’s Econ Advisor On Giving President Advice That’s ‘Hard to Take’

President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, faced a pointed question from a Bloomberg TV anchor on Friday over how often he delivers advice to the president that’s “hard to take.”

The grilling came from Bloomberg TV’s Dani Burger, who remarked to Hassett, “It’s often that great leaders need to be ones who surround themselves with people who can deliver them hard truths, and it’s a strange time in this economy. Many things are changing — be it AI or the impact of higher oil prices. I wonder what those conversations are like. How often are you coming to the president and delivering him advice that’s maybe hard to take — that parts of this economy, maybe, need various efforts?”

“You know, I obviously can’t talk about specific conversations with the president,” cautioned Hassett. “I was in the Oval [Office] with him last night. We talked about a wide range of issues, and he doesn’t really have much patience for ‘yes men,’ and so when you go into a meeting in the Oval, one thing I can say is that you cover a wide range of topics, and a wide range of opinions — always.”

The Bloomberg TV appearance wasn’t the National Economic Council director’s only one of the day. Also on Friday, he joined Fox News’s America’s Newsroom to discuss the poor employment report showing the U.S. lost 23,000 jobs in July, attempting to blame the numbers on the culmination of the World Cup.

After Fox News host Bill Hemmer noted that the report was “well below the number we were expecting to add, about 80,000,” Hassett countered, “The weakest in this number were really just two things: government workers and sort of rebound from all the employment we got from the World Cup, ’cause the World Cup was ending.”

Watch the full clip above via Bloomberg TV.

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