Press Briefing: Kevin Hassett Speaks to Reporters Outside the White House - July 30, 2026

Hey, Kevin.

Hi. How are you?

The stragglers today, I guess.

Yeah, good to see you.

I, I always, when I leave, I say I have a meeting, have a meeting, but right now I don't have a meeting. [Laughs]

So you're gonna be here with all of us. All right, you're hostage.

Yeah, depends on how good the, the questions are.

Can you tell us why did economic growth slow in the second quarter?

Yeah, the, the GDP number for final demand, which is kind of what happens with spending in America, was up 3.9%, which was about we expected. That's a really strong positive effort. The reason that the final GDP number was lower was that there's been a massive amount of capital spending that's imported capital goods.

And so there was a big decline relative to the four percent, uh, because of imports of capital goods. But the imports of capital goods are a very positive sign for the outlook going forward because those capital goods are machines that are gonna turn it on, factories are gonna light up, jobs will be created.

Are you, are you disappointed that the Fed didn't lower interest rates?

I respect the opinions of the Fed and I think they've got new leadership there and I'm very optimistic about how productive and successful they could be.

Mr. Hassett, if ships continue to go at the rate they are, passing through the Strait of Hormuz, how quickly do you think, uh, gas prices [Inaudible]

Well, well, we've seen that the energy prices, uh, you know, have been much lower than, than critics had originally said they would. And that's because we've taken so many actions to get energy prices as low as they could be despite the disruption, including having Navy vessels and support ships out of the Strait, increasing flow in pipelines, uh, waiving the Jones Act so that we could get, uh, ships, uh, to move, uh, Gulf of America oil to the East Coast and the West Coast.

And so we, I, I think have had an enormous amount of success making it not be as bad as the critics said. And I think that we will do that at the --

Do you think that, uh, the threat, the Houthis are threatening or causing issues in the Red Sea. Do you think that that could impact things? Do you see, perceive that?

Yeah, I'm, I'm not a national security guy, so I don't know if I can predict --

But if, uh, I'm sorry, on prices and stuff like that going through. I mean, if that would maybe hurt some farmers and all, you know.

I, I mean, I, it's just like there's a lot of [Inaudible] disruption pending in Israel.

We saw a decline in PC inflation for June. Um, but since the reigniting of the fighting in Iran this month, we've seen gas prices go back up. Are you concerned about where, uh, inflation will be, whether it's CPI or PCE, um, for July and potentially August and what that means?

Well, we're co- -- of course watching energy prices really closely, but the thing inside the PCE report and the CPI report that I found very heartening is there's so many signs of the success of our policy. So for example, uh, in the CPI report, we saw a big decline in drug prices right after we had TrumpRx announced.

And we've also been negotiating most favored nation, uh, prices for drug companies really help, helping people. Uh, we, uh, had a, a, a big move to do things like slow the avian flu, uh, and get egg prices down. And, and so it, within the details of the CPI, uh, you could see that there are a whole bunch of policies that are lowering inflation.

Uh, and as energy prices come down, as, as the, the things, we saw what happened with the ceasefire as these things are finalized, that, uh, I think inflation is probably very close to that [Inaudible] Okay, guys. Okay.

I have a question of, what do you, what are you expecting for the economy in general as we come to the midterms?

Oh, I think that, that we're basically the four percent number that we saw on [Inaudible] is about what we should think is gonna happen to the GDP [Inaudible]

Okay.

And that's because there's so much capital spending that's being turned on that it's almost gotten down.

Any advice for us journalists on how we can make more money?

How to make more money?

As an economic advisor.

I'm sorry, I think you guys are probably optimizing your careers [Inaudible] I hope. Well, thanks, you guys have a great day.

Thank you.

Thank you.