Kevin Hassett | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2018 | |
| Director of theNational Economic Council | |
| Assumed office January 20, 2025 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Lael Brainard |
| Senior Advisor to the President for Economic Issues | |
| In office April 15, 2020 – July 1, 2020 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| 29th Chair of theCouncil of Economic Advisers | |
| In office September 13, 2017 – June 28, 2019 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Jason Furman |
| Succeeded by | Tomas J. Philipson (Acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kevin Allen Hassett (1962-03-20)March 20, 1962 (age 63) |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Kristie |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Swarthmore College (BA) University of Pennsylvania (MA,PhD) |
Kevin Allen Hassett (born March 20, 1962) is an Americaneconomist who has been the director of theNational Economic Council since 2025. He was thesenior advisor and chairman of theCouncil of Economic Advisers from 2017 to 2019.
Hassett has worked at theAmerican Enterprise Institute, aconservativethink tank.[1] He wasJohn McCain's chief economic adviser in the2000 presidential primaries, as well as economic adviser to the2004 campaign ofGeorge W. Bush and2008 campaign of McCain. He was an economic adviser onMitt Romney's2012 presidential campaign.[2]
In the first Trump administration, Hassett served as the 29th chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from September 2017 to June 2019.[3][4][5][6] He returned to the White House in 2020 to work on the administration's response to thecoronavirus pandemic. Hassett did not focus on public health policy, but rather influenced the administration's response from an economic angle amid lockdowns and social distancing.[7][8]
On November 26, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced Hassett would be his director of theNational Economic Council in his second administration.[9]
Hassett is fromGreenfield, Massachusetts, where he graduated fromGreenfield High School.[10] He received aBachelor of Arts in economics fromSwarthmore College and aPhD in economics from theUniversity of Pennsylvania under the supervision ofAlan J. Auerbach.[11]
Hassett was an assistant professor of economics atColumbia Business School from 1989 to 1993 and an associate professor there from 1993 to 1994. From 1992 to 1997, Hassett was an economist in the Division of Research and Statistics at theFederal Reserve Board of Governors. He served as a policy consultant to theUnited States Treasury Department during theGeorge H. W. Bush andBill Clinton administrations.[12]
Hassett joined AEI as a resident scholar in 1997. He worked on tax policy, fiscal policy, energy issues, and investing in the stock market. He collaborated withR. Glenn Hubbard on work on thebudget surplus,income inequality, and tax reform. Hassett published papers and articles on capital taxation, the consistency of tax policy, returns onenergy conservation investments,corporate taxation,telecommunications competition, the effects of taxation on wages,dividend taxation, andcarbon taxes.[12]
In 2003, Hassett was named director of economic policy studies at AEI. Hassett wrote columns in newspapers likeThe New York Times,The Washington Post, andThe Wall Street Journal. He writes a monthly column forNational Review and, since 2005, a weekly column forBloomberg.[13]
In 2007, Hassett argued that the United States was on the wrong side of theLaffer curve in terms of corporate tax rates. Some commentators characterized a graph that he used to support his argument as deceptive.[14][15]
Hassett is coauthor withJames K. Glassman ofDow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market. It was published in 1999 before thedot-com bubble burst. The book's title was based on a calculation that, in the absence of theequity premium, stock prices would be approximately four times as high as they actually were.[16]
According toThe New York Times, Hassett's nomination by Trump to lead the Council of Economic Advisers was met with opposition by some anti-immigration groups such asBreitbart News,American Renaissance, and theCenter for Immigration Studies.[17] Hassett—"like most economists ... believes that immigration spurs economic growth." Prior to Hassett's nomination, President Trump "broke with recent tradition and removed the council's chairman from a cabinet-level position".[17]
On September 5, 2018, the Council of Economic Advisors released new analysis indicating that real wage growth under Trump was higher than reported, despite figures indicating that wage growth had not picked up. Hassett said "Much of the commentary about wage growth that we see is influenced by confusion we find about proper measurement. The headlines have missed the real wage growth."[18]
On September 13, 2018, on an official visit to Ireland, when questioned if the U.S. consideredIreland as a tax haven, Hassett said that: "It's not Ireland's fault US tax law was written by someone on acid". Hassett had labeled Ireland as atax haven on several interviews in August–December 2017, when advocating for theTax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 ("TCJA").[19] In July 2018,Seamus Coffey, Chairperson of theIrish Fiscal Advisory Council and author of the Irish State's 2016 review of theIrish corporate tax code posted that Ireland could now see a "boom" in theonshoring of U.S. intellectual property, via the IrishCapital Allowances for Intangible Assets (CAIA) BEPS tool which is enhanced by Hassett's TCJA legislation.[20] In February 2019,Brad Setser from theCouncil on Foreign Relations, wrote aNew York Times article highlighting the failings of Hassett's TCJA in addressing the use of tax havens by U.S. corporates and why the TCJA incentivized U.S. corporate use of tax havens.[21]
On June 2, 2019, it was announced that Hassett would be stepping down from his role within the coming weeks.[6]
On March 20, 2020, it was announced that Hassett would be returning to the White House on a temporary basis to advisePresident Trump on economic policy amid theCOVID-19 pandemic.[22][23][24] On April 15, 2020, the Trump administration announced Hassett's appointment as a senior advisor.[25] Hassett, who had no previous experience in infectious disease modeling, built a model that forecast far lower coronavirus deaths than actually happened, and additional modeling provided grim predictions about the adverse economic effects, such as a 40% reduction in GDP and unemployment numbers in the tens of millions.[7] Hassett's model indicated that coronavirus deaths would peak in mid-April, and subsequently drop off to near zero by May 15.[7][26] Hassett's model contradicted assessments by public health experts.[27] Hassett encouraged the administration to re-open the economy.[7] In early May 2020, Hassett said there might not be a need for more coronavirus economic relief, invoking the possibility that economies in nearly all states could be re-opened by the end of May.[28] When Hassett's model was released to the public, it was widely criticized by academics and commentators.[8][29]
Hassett was reportedly shortlisted for nomination as chair of the Federal Reserve if former president Donald Trump were to win re-election in 2024.[30] When President Donald Trump took office for the second time, he chose Hassett as director of the National Economic Council. DuringTrump's second term, Hassett defended his tariff threats against other countries.[31][32]
After winning election in November 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced that Hassett would serve as director of theNational Economic Council (NEC).Politico wrote that Hassett "would take on an expanded role as the president's top adviser on economic matters and play a key part in coordinating policies and strategy across the government."[33] Hassett became director of the NEC in January 2025 at the start of the second Trump administration.
In October 2025,United States Secretary of the TreasuryScott Bessent confirmed that Hassett was on the short list of five candidates being considered by President Trump to replaceChair of the Federal ReserveJerome Powell when his term ends in May 2026.[34]
A mystery of the current economic recovery is why wages are stuck in neutral while economic growth revs faster. On Wednesday, the Trump administration tried to solve the puzzle by producing its own measure that shows wages are, in fact, growing
The economist [Kevin Hassett], who has previously referred to the Republic as a tax haven, said there had been a need to introduce reforms in the US, which have brought its corporate rate down to 21 per cent.
IP onshoring is something we should be expecting to see much more of as we move towards the end of the decade. Buckle up!
Media related toKevin Hassett at Wikimedia Commons
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chair of theCouncil of Economic Advisers 2017–2019 | Succeeded by Tomas J. Philipson Acting |
| Preceded by | Director of theNational Economic Council 2025–present | Incumbent |
 | ||
* indicates acting officeholders | ||