Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council and the current favorite to take over as Federal Reserve chair, argued on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are playing a meaningful role in tackling America’s $38 trillion national debt. In conversation with billionaire David Rubenstein, a cofounder of the Carlyle Group, Hassett said the first step to tackling the debt was to reduce it relative to target: “And we clearly are doing that with the big reductions in the deficit right now.”
Hassett added that he’s not only bullish about growth in the economy but “the fact that we have tariff revenue and we’ve got a lot more spending restraint than was here in the past.” He noted tariffs are an important part of Trump’s economic policy and that “a lot of the revenue coming into the Treasury” is from tariffs. Hassett cast tariffs as part of a broader supply-side strategy he said he believes can boost growth, widen the tax base, and, over time, ease the debt burden.
