An American economist and policy adviser. He holds a PhD in economics and has several top-tier publications to his name. He spent decades at the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, where he was best known as a right-of-centre tax expert, advising Republican luminaries including George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney. He also had a stint at the Federal Reserve.
In 1999, near the height of the dotcom boom, he predicted a near-quadrupling of the Dow Jones index—one of the worst forecasts in history.
Hassett chaired Donald Trump's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) during his first term—a role usually filled by bookish types who avoid muddying themselves with politics. He pushed out tenuous analysis to bolster the president's agenda: his estimate of the boost to household incomes from the corporate-tax cuts of 2017 was well above the mainstream consensus, and during the early weeks of the covid-19 pandemic he released a "cubic model"—the sort that can be generated with a few clicks on Excel—which projected that the disease would shortly subside. In Trump's second term he headed the National Economic Council.
In a 2021 book Hassett called the Jones Act "a case study in how severe unintended consequences can be" and said that doing away with it was a task for Trump's second term.
By early 2026 prediction markets assigned a more than 70% chance to Hassett being named as Jerome Powell's successor as Fed chair. He has said that "monetary policy needs to be fully independent of political influence", but has also said that "the American people could expect President Trump to pick somebody who's going to help them...have cheaper car loans and easier access to mortgages." Although as chair he would push for interest-rate cuts, Federal Reserve chairs are not all-powerful; bringing down rates significantly would need the support of his fellow governors.
Mr Hassett has "serious economic chops" but is considered a paid-up member of team Trump. Some Republican senators have said they would block Fed nominations until the resolution of the DoJ's subpoena probe against Jerome Powell, which could complicate any appointment.
He that teaches himself has a fool for a master.