Kevin Hassett: Speaks with Trump daily
Kevin Hassett has been seen broadly as the frontrunner in this race. As director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), Hassett claims he speaks with President Trump daily, and his appointment to the NEC suggests that Trump already values his outlook.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, tends to have a happy-go-lucky posture when speaking to the press. Francis Chung—Politico/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Hassett knows how to work with politicians, particularly Trump. From 2017 to 2019 he served as chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors, and then was enlisted by the White House to serve as a senior advisor on the coronavirus pandemic. He has also worked with a roster of Republican politicians, serving as John McCain’s chief economic advisor in 2000, adviser to George W. Bush in 2004, and to Mitt Romney in 2012.
The conservative economist has also worked within the Fed before, in the 1990s, though not in decision-making or senior positions, unlike some of his rivals.
