White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has offered a striking explanation for why American consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest point since records began in 1952 — suggesting the reading reflects not economic failure, but the sheer ambition of President Donald Trump's agenda.
In a clip posted to X by FactPost on 11 May 2026, Hassett told CNBC: 'Trump has sort of taken every problem on Earth and gone 100% at fixing it. And I think that that can be stressful for people to see so much change going on.' The remark came as University of Michigan consumer survey data showed confidence falling to a preliminary reading of 48.2, the lowest on records going back more than seven decades, surpassing lows seen during the Great Recession, the pandemic, and the post-Covid inflation surge.
