Key role: Hassett, whose post does not require Senate confirmation, will likely be heavily involved in Trump’s plans to cut taxes. — AP
WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump has named Kevin Hassett to direct the National Economic Council and Jamieson Greer as the US Trade Representative, filling two key posts on his economic team.
Trump, in statements on Tuesday, lauded the two men, who will have direct sway over much of his economic agenda.
Hassett, whose post does not require Senate confirmation, will likely be heavily involved in Trump’s plans to cut taxes and Greer, if confirmed by the Senate, will have a direct hand in the president-elect’s expansive tariff vision.
Hassett “will play an important role in helping American families recover from the inflation that was unleashed by the Biden administration. Together, we will renew and improve our record tax cuts,” Trump said in a statement.
The president-elect said Greer would focus on “reining in the country’s massive trade deficit, defending American manufacturing, agriculture, and services, and opening up export markets everywhere.”
Greer is a long-time protege of Robert Lighthizer, who served four years as Trump’s US Trade Representative and oversaw billions in tariffs on both allies and adversaries, such as China.
He was Lighthizer’s chief of staff during the first Trump term.
His selection highlights the central role tariffs will play in the Trump economic agenda, with the incoming president vowing to use trade policy to raise revenue for the federal government and to pressure companies to reshore manufacturing jobs to the United States.
Hassett is also a Trump White House veteran, who previously served as a senior adviser to Trump and as the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.
He is a vigorous defender the president-elect’s signature tax policies, which Trump has vowed to renew next year when many of the cuts are set to expire.
Hassett and Greer help flesh out a growing economic team that Trump has named in recent days.
Last week, the president-elect announced that hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as his Treasury secretary nominee, and nominated Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s Howard Lutnick to lead the commerce department, where he will also be heavily involved in trade policy.
Trump has already begun rolling out policy plans, with nearly two months until he takes the oath of office.
His team has indicated that imposing sweeping new import duties, and moving a tax cut bill through Congress will be immediate priorities in the new administration.
On Monday, Trump said he intended to impose 25% levies on all imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on Chinese goods, roiling markets with his first specific threats on top trading partners since winning the presidency three weeks ago.
Trump, on the campaign trail, also proposed to renew his 2017 tax cuts, and vowed long list of fresh 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 technology mogul Elon Musk to slash US$2 trillion in spending, and grow the economy while also imposing punitive tariffs on trade partners.
During his tenure, Hassett 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 Labour Statistics and the Census Bureau.
Trump, in a press release, praised Greer’s former boss and Trump’s first-term US Trade Representative Lighthizer as “a spectacular leader and person” but the former trade chief – who was widely seen as one of the contenders for an economic job in the second term and pushed hard to become the Treasury pick – has yet to be named for an administration role. — Bloomberg
