National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has flatly denied a report that he is leaving the Trump administration within weeks, and the White House has backed him in public. Hassett told CNBC's Eamon Javers by text message that the report is “not true.” A White House official said: “There is no factual basis for this reporting. Kevin Hassett is a key member of President Trump's economic team and will continue working to advance President Trump's economic policies.”
The story being denied came from Semafor, which reported on Friday, citing three people familiar with the plan, that Hassett was departing in the coming weeks and had been inquiring about roles outside the administration since before the November 3 midterm elections, in which Democrats retook both chambers of Congress. Semafor said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who could hold both roles, and his counselor David Zervos were among the people being eyed to replace Hassett, and it framed the expected move as the latest in a series of staffing changes at the White House. It also noted that Hassett's plans could still change.
The difference between the two sides matters. Semafor's account rests on unnamed sources describing a plan. The denials are on the record, from Hassett himself and from the White House, and they do not hedge: the report, they say, has no factual basis, and Hassett is staying on the economic team.
Why it matters to ordinary Americans: Hassett runs the National Economic Council, the office that coordinates the President's economic policy — the tax, tariff and cost-of-living agenda that lands directly on household budgets. A change at the top of that office would put a new hand on the policies workers and families feel every week. On the record as it stands tonight, there is no change coming: the man himself says the story is not true, and the White House says he is going nowhere.
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