Press Briefing: Kevin Hassett Speaks to Reporters Outside the White House - July 14, 2026

You guys look pretty hot.

Yeah, um, it's, uh, yeah.

Don't freeze out here.

Yeah.

We've got some pretty good numbers for consumers --

That's right.

-- on the CPI, uh, down, uh, considerably.

Yeah, it's, it's really about the best CPI report we've seen in six years. There were, uh, I think it was 67 Bloomberg economists that forecasted, uh, what it would be and it beat expectation for all 67 of them. And I think the reason is that not only did energy prices go down a lot, which is something that people expected, but there are so many signs of the success of President Trump's policies.

So for example, we got a big decline in drug prices. We got a big decline in car insurance costs because we've increased the rule of law. It's no longer the case that people are rioting in our cities everywhere and stealing the cars. And so, uh, going thing by thing, there's so much good news of this report that, you know, we could go on forever.

Tomatoes are down, uh, 10% in month over month, so you should go home and have a nice salad when you get home.

Amazing. The, uh, at 4:00 today Eastern, the, uh, the blockade of Iranian ports went back into effect. Do you see that impacting, uh, consumer spending or, uh, uh, the price of pay here?

The, the fact is that, that the Navy has made an enormous amount of progress at helping, uh, our friendly ships get through the Gulf. And if you look at the day-to-day traffic, then there's a heck of a lot of, uh, fossil fuel, of oil, making it out and making it to refineries in Asia and Europe and elsewhere.

And so I, I know that a lot of people have been surprised in the past at what, you know, why didn't oil prices go up by so much more, uh, during the conflict. Now, uh, we're even more secure in the Gulf because of all the actions that our military has taken. And so we're confident that we're gonna continue to be able to get oil out of the Gulf in a way that's calming for markets.

What about the markets? The markets are just crazy. The stock market, it's going terribly.

Excuse me?

The stock market is going terribly if you have any --

It --

What's some of the drivers on that might be?

Well, the, oh yeah, the, the stock market has been going up and up and up. And, uh, the reason is that profits have been doing very, very well. Uh, optimism about the future is the highest it's ever been because people believe President Trump when he says the golden age is upon us. The reason that profits are up, uh, in a lot of places is because artificial intelligence is helping firms run their businesses better.

And that helps both workers and, uh, firms. And a measure that was in today's Consumer Price Index where we saw that real wages for workers were up 0.8% just, uh, on the month alone, uh, which again is an almost record positive month for real wages for workers.

[Inaudible]

I'll come over with this way next.

[Inaudible] effectively over and gas prices now once more on the rise, what should we expect for next month?

Next month for CPI? Well, the momentum in the core, like, so, so core wa- -- was down a little bit. Uh, year-over-year core at 2.6% is almost the Fed target. And that's happening not just because of energy prices, but because of all of the Trump policies that are putting downward pressure on prices. And so that, uh, is something that we have high confidence will continue.

Uh, what happens with energy prices will depend, uh, you know, on obviously what happens over the next month, but we are able to get ships out of the Gulf in a way that's much safer than it was at the beginning of, of the conflict.

The president said yesterday he's interested in 20%, uh, dividends for ships transiting through the US Navy in the Strait of Hormuz. How would that work? How quickly would that go into play? If any, who would collect that money? Would it go to the Treasury Department? Walk me through what you talked about.

Uh, I, you know, I, I haven't gone through the details of how that would work, but it's, it's obvious to the president that the US is investing an enormous amount of money in helping world commerce, uh, by making sure that things can make it through the straits. And as you, as you look, like, it, with, within the US, we're an enormous oil producer.

And with the waiver of the Jones Act, we've been moving our own oil to the West Coast and everywhere else, reducing imports of, uh, refined product and unrefined product by almost 100 billion dollars. And so the US is really taking a big, big price, paying a big price, both to protect us against Iranians having a nuclear weapon, but also to get the oil out of the Gulf so that we don't have massive economic disruption around the world.

The disproportionate beneficiaries of all that are the Europeans and the Asians and they're not really bearing the cost. And so President Trump has been looking into ways to help them share the cost for, and this is one idea.

As you know, as you know, Prime Minister of Iraq is here. He will meet President Trump. What is your policy toward Iraq and especially about the bank system?

Well, I think that that's something that President Trump, uh, will be talking about with the Prime Minister today. So I'm sure they'll have plenty to report. I expect they'll do a news conference after.

[Inaudible]

You know, we respect the independence of the Fed, especially now that Kevin Warsh is there. Uh, he's taken a lot of steps. You see he appointed a advisory board filled with some of the, the greatest minds on earth. And so we, we have high regard for their ability to watch the data and decide what to do. But boy, when they look at the data today, they're gonna think, "Geez, things are really moving in the right direction." I got time for one last question.

Yes.

[Inaudible] I just had a follow up. So is this administration's position that charging fees on ships going through the Strait of Hormuz does not violate international law?

Uh, that's something that I, you know, I've not been briefed on exactly how the fees are going to be charged. But the principle that the US is bearing a very, very high cost to protect, basically the welfare of a lot of other countries, uh, and that they should help share the cost of that is something I think we would all agree to. So thank you guys very much.

[Crosstalk]