Kevin Hassett, President Donald Trump’s prime financial adviser, made an unimaginable attain in an try to justify a debunked declare in regards to the Trump administration lowering the price of a Thanksgiving dinner.
Hassett, director of the National Economic Council and the person reportedly tapped to be Trump’s subsequent chair of the Federal Reserve, appeared on Fox News on Tuesday in an try to color a rosy financial image forward of the vacation season.
After hailing the “golden age” created by Trump, a declare that even Vice President JD Vance seems reluctant to get behind, Hassett took challenge with an unnamed Sunday politics present anchor who “criticized the fact that Walmart said Thanksgiving dinner is cheaper by, I think it was about $10, for a typical Thanksgiving dinner.”
“And then he said, ‘Oh, yes, but they substituted generic stuff,’ as if having a generic something is a crime for ordinary folks. It shows how out of touch these people are,” Hassett continued. (Watch a video clip on the backside of the story.)
Hassett, a scholar of fiscal coverage earlier than becoming a member of the Trump White House, appears to be willfully lacking the purpose and ignoring the truth that the “cheaper” dinner suggestion isn’t primarily based on a like-for-like comparability.
Earlier this month, Trump took credit score for what he claimed was Walmart saying that “Prices for a Thanksgiving Dinner is now down 25% since under Sleepy/Crooked Joe Biden, in 2024.”
But as detailed in a HuffPost evaluation, Walmart had not made any comparisons to Thanksgiving costs final yr.
In any case, a easy learn throughout reveals Walmart’s 2025 meal package deal has fewer objects than final yr’s choice.
When Trump’s declare was shared on X, previously Twitter, a group word made the identical level about fewer objects, in addition to underlining how premium merchandise had been being swapped out for generic ones.
Since the president launched a commerce battle by slapping steep tariffs on imported items, inflation has remained stubbornly excessive.
The Consumer Price Index for September rose 3.0% from a yr earlier as meals and power costs picked up.
Following his feedback to Kellyanne Conway on Fox News, Hassett confronted a backlash.
“It’s hilarious to watch Trumpworld tell poor people to stop complaining Trump has made everything more expensive,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wrote on X. mentioned. “Here Hassett tells poor people to be cool with less and lower quality food – while he and other MAGA millionaires and billionaires eat like kings.”
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that Hassett is the front-runner to be the following chair of the Federal Reserve.
Trump has ripped sitting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, calling the central financial institution chief a “numbskull” for not slicing rates of interest rapidly sufficient.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kevin-hassett-trump-thanksgiving-dinner_n_692702e4e4b043c0cb07860d