Transcript: Kevin Hassett on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Dec. 14, 2025

The following is the transcript of the interview with White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett tthat aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Dec. 14, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to "Face the Nation." We're joined now by the Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett. Good to have you back. 

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: It's great to be back. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So people are holiday shopping. They're aware of prices. The president said this week prices are coming down tremendously. The latest data, though, from the Consumer Price Index is up 3% year over year, personal consumption index is up 2.8% year over year. What data is he looking at? What's your benchmark?

: Right. Well, one of the things that if you saw his presentation in Pennsylvania, as he put up a bunch of charts, which he loves to do, where he went through the individual items that we've already sort of made a bunch of progress on. And so, for example, under Joe Biden, prescription drugs were up 9%. So far this year, they're down six tenths of a percent. Gasoline is way down. It was like the highest ever under Biden--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --Eggs, he was talking about eggs, yeah. 

: Yeah, he was talking about eggs. And so I think the way to think about inflation, of course, is that there are like micro effects, like the time that we had the avian flu affecting drug prices. And then macro effects, which is runaway spending, big deficits and then an accommodative Fed policy. And I think--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --But now tariffs adding to some price increases according to the Fed chair.

: Well, I- you know, I think that the tariff evidence is mixed. But the point is that we've got deficit going way, way down. So right now, it's looking like the deficit for this year will be $600 billion lower than it was last year. That really helps lower inflation. We've got the trade deficit cut in half from last year. And so all of these things are things that should continue to move us towards the Fed target of 2%.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Companies aren't necessarily going to bring items down, though, in terms of pricing, right? I mean, the- the president told the Wall Street Journal he didn't know when all of this money, quote, "is going to kick in." I think he was talking to business investment and tariffs, and help voters, "all I can do is do my job." When do you anticipate voters will feel this positive impact?

: Right. Well, it's definitely the case that, and you guys have been covered a lot, that consumer sentiment right now is lower than anyone would like. But, you know, we find that that very often happens during a government shutdown when everybody's really upset--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the last administration called that the "vibecession," right? 

: No, but--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --the data is good, but people feel bad.   

: --Yeah, but what's going to happen is--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --Same thing, you're saying.

: No what's- I'm not saying that. What- what I'm saying is that people are going to see the high growth. Growth is 4%. Income growth is up about $1,200 this year. People look at their wallets and see they're doing better, which is why we had the biggest Black Friday ever and so on and so--

MARGARET BRENNAN: But that's more higher income se--

: --The sentiment will catch up with the reality. Under Joe Biden, the fact is that real purchasing power dropped by about $3,000. So far this year, it's up by about $1,200 per family. And the money that we're talking about is like real money. So for groceries, it went from $400 a month to $525 a month under Biden. So that's like an extra more than $1,000 a year. You have to spend on groceries. It's down this year for us, for the grocery package, but it's still got a lot of room to grow- to go.

MARGARET BRENNAN: A lot more to go--

: Yeah. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: And the president reduced some tariffs on some of those grocery items--

: --On the food stuff--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --with an eye towards that.

: Yeah, if we don't make it here, then pretty much we don't tariff it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me ask you, you mentioned gas. Oil prices globally are relatively low. We saw this Coast Guard interdiction with military forces boarding and seizing this vessel off the coast of Venezuela. Do you feel you have the leeway there, pricing-wise, to conduct more seizures or even a blockade of oil from Venezuela, without it hurting?

: Well, I'm not a foreign policy guy, so what we do with Venezuela and whether we blockade is up to the president and Marco Rubio. But I could say that--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --But you've got the leeway, right--

: --that- that what's been going on is there's been kind of a black market for oil amongst sort of this sanctioned countries. And what we're doing is we're shutting that black market down. Whether that affects prices outside of the sanctioned countries is kind of an open question. Probably not.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You don't think it will?

: No, because they're already kind of on the ropes, these countries. They're only getting oil when they get like sort of black fleets to sneak in and give them the oil. And that's what we're trying to slow down.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, I want to ask you about the Fed decision. The Federal Open Market Committee said job gains have slowed this year. We also saw the survey from the Business Roundtable. I'm sure you saw it. They asked CEOs what they expect to happen, and they anticipate employment will decrease in 2026 rather than increase. Are you concerned about a hiring slowdown?

: The same Fed said that they were more bullish on growth for next year, right? And so I think that we're at a certain--

MARGARET BRENNAN: But on the jobs picture.

: But on the jobs picture, you know, we're going to get the data next week. And so maybe next Sunday I'll come back and we'll talk about it, because we've got two months of data coming out on Tuesday. And we'll get a clearer picture because right now we just have some very difficult to pin down surveys like the gold standard for this will be really the household survey, which we don't even get for October.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But these are CEOs. They're the people who would be doing the hiring, right? And they're saying, we're not doing it.

: But, but they don't have the broad perspective that we'll get when we get the big data released next week.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you trust that big data?

: I trust the household survey, especially. And sadly, we won't have one for October. But we're going to get one for November. And that's going to be really important for thinking about where the job market is.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Employment is one of the things that the Fed watches closely. And we heard again from the president that you were on this short list to be potentially the next Fed chair, although he was conducting interviews this week. He said you and Hoover's Kevin Warsh are at the top of the list. On Friday, the president was asked how big of a role he wants to personally play in future Fed interest rate decisions. Take a listen. 

[SOUND ON TAPE BEGINS] 

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think I certainly should have a role in talking to whoever the head of the Fed is, or the Fed. I don't think- you know the old days that used to happen. Nowadays, it's sort of, they think it shouldn't happen. But I've done great. I've made a lot of money, I'm very successful. I think my voice should be heard. 

[SOUND ON TAPE ENDS] 

MARGARET BRENNAN:  As Fed chair, how frequently would you consult with the president when he says he wants his voice heard?

: Well, I'm right now the top economic advisor for the president, and I talk about almost everything with him almost every day. I've certainly talked about monetary policy. I think he has very strong and well-founded views about what we ought to do. But in the end, the job of the Fed is to be independent and to work with the group of people that are on the Board of Governors, at the FOMC, to drive a group consensus on where interest rates should be and to do so, you know, basically with the guidance of the Fed chair. But in the end, it's a committee that votes. And I'd be happy to talk to the president every day, you know, until both of us are dead because it's so much fun to talk--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Even if you were Fed Chair.

:  Even if I were Fed Chair or if I wasn't Fed Chair. You know what, I would hope that Kevin Warsh would be talking to the president as well if he were Fed Chair.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And voice should be heard is going to be--

: You know, every Fed Chair talks to lots and lots of market experts--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --Equal to the other members- of the voting members or? 

: Excuse me? 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Would the president's voice have equal weighting to the voting members?

: No, no, he would have no weight. It's just his opinion matters if it's good, you know, if it's based on data. And then if you go to the committee and you say, well, the president made this argument and that's a really sound argument, I think, what do you think? If they reject it, then they'll vote in a different way.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. Well, we'll be watching to see what happens. Kevin Hassett.

: Great to be here.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Thanks as always. We'll be right back.