Press Briefing: Kevin Hassett Speaks to Reporters Outside the White House - June 2, 2026

-- yeah actually it was five minutes ago. Yeah. Okay.

Kevin, I wanted to ask you --

Uh huh.

-- what do you say to Americans who are really struggling right now to fill up a tank of gas?

Well, the price of gasoline is something that's coming down and it's going to come down faster, uh, as we get more oil out of the Gulf, which we're doing every day. Uh, but, you know, gasoline isn't the only story on prices. We just got some really good news from the Dallas Fed that if you throw out the high and the low prices, the, the inflation rate right now is 2.3% and real wages are up, uh, on average about $3,000 since President Trump took office.

And so people's incomes are growing faster, uh, than the prices, even if you account for what's going on with gas.

What specific economic policy will have the biggest impact on the middle class over the next 12 months?

Uh, that's a fantastic question. I think that basically we've got a, a suite of policies that are targeted at middle class, uh, growth. On the corporate side, you know, we just talked, uh, with Larry Kudlow about how there's a corporate investment boom and when there's a corporate investment boom, that means that the people who are working have better machines to work with, their productivity goes up and their wages go up. But we also have things that are targeted specifically for workers like no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security.

And those things are having a really, really big effect as well like we saw in the tax return data that a typical person on the no tax on, uh, tips or social security, uh, saw their, uh, before tax income dropped $7,000. I'll go with this one.

Mr. Hassett, You mentioned that you think that the Strait of Hormuz moves might open in a month or two. Are you expecting that to happen?

I, I'm not a forecaster of what's going on in those things.

Are you concerned about the, uh, Bab al-Mandeb Strait and Yemen closing it or --

Yeah, I'm not involved in the negotiation.

Mr. Hassett, how are you, sir? Um, can you talk about the new write-off in the OBVB for 100% deductions upfront equipment purchases? Has that impacted job hiring yet? Can you point to anything specific?

Sure

Do you think GDP is gonna break 3% for the next two quarters?

Yeah, well, I think the current pace, uh, GDP growth is about 4%. One of the things we're seeing is a massive, uh, building boom, uh, because we're allowing the expensing of factory buildings and the buildings are being built, construction worker salaries are up about $7,000 because they're all getting put to work to build the factory buildings.

And then as those factories get the machines plugged in, then the workers will go in there too. And so the job situation is very solid right now, but the trajectory is through the roof.

Director Bill Pulte, the president obviously named his name to be acting director of national intelligence. Why should Americans trust him to lead that office even though he has no national security experience?

Uh, Bill Pulte is a terrific guy, very careful person, uh, very much in the details of things, trusted by the President and, and a really, really close friend to everybody in the White House. He'll do a great job.

How do you respond criticism, even from Republican allies of the White House that Mr. Pulte does not have the credentials necessary to be looking over the 18 agencies, including the CIA, the National Security Agency, that this job would require?

Uh, Bill's a, a fantastic guy, a brilliant guy. He's done a terrific job at Fannie and Freddie, and we're sure he's gonna do a good job here as well.

Yesterday, the US credit representative, uh, proposed 25% tariffs on Brazil after the 30, uh, 301 investigation. Is there anything that Brazil can do to avoid these tariffs at this point in the, the net line --

Uh, that'll be, that'll be up to the president as [Inaudible] next year. [Inaudible]. I'll take the last question.

Yeah, thank you. How is the United States [Inaudible] stabilize the exchange rate today?

Can you say it again?

The exchange rate [Inaudible] the dollar --

Oh, the exchange rate. Yeah. Well, uh, we believe in a strong dollar and, uh, I think that all of that, too, that is probably the US [Inaudible] dollar. We're very bullish on the American dollar. So thank you.

One more, sir?

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.