Kevin Hassett

Kevin Allen Hassett (born March 20, 1962) is an American economist who has been the director of the National Economic Council since 2025. He was the senior advisor and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2017 to 2019. Hassett has worked at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. He was John McCain's chief economic adviser in the 2000 presidential primaries, as well as economic adviser to the 2004 campaign of George W. Bush and 2008 campaign of McCain. He was an economic adviser on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. In the first Trump administration, Hassett served as the 29th chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from September 2017 to June 2019. He returned to the White House in 2020 to work on the administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Hassett did not focus on public health policy, but rather influenced the administration's response from an economic angle amid lockdowns and social distancing. On November 26, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced Hassett would be his director of the National Economic Council in his second administration.