Trump’s Top Economic Advisor Touts Growing Wages — But There’s A Problem

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett was touting growing wages during a “Fox News Sunday” interview before host Shannon Bream reminded him about inflation data.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a broad measure of the cost of everyday goods, rose 3.8% year over year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported, citing energy prices as the major factor. Hassett told Bream some Americans were earning as much as $7,000 a year more than the previous year.

“Look at real wage data: the typical American family has gained about $3,000 since President Trump took office after losing — after inflation — more than $3,000 under Joe Biden. And so we’ve got smoothing through the ups and downs, even with the higher price of energy,” Hassett told Bream. “Real income’s on the rise and, for construction workers, for manufacturing workers, for mining workers, the numbers are really astonishing. For mining workers, their real incomes this year are up $7,000 per year.”

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More than three out of four respondents to a poll released May 17 said they felt “concerned” about the economy, while two in three said they felt “stressed” as the Iran war continues to affect the U.S. economy, which is experiencing stubbornly high inflation, CBS News reported. Only 29% of the poll’s respondents said the economy was “good,” while 65% described the economy as “uncertain” and 63% called it “struggling.”

While the Trump administration reversed the Biden administration’s hostility to fossil fuel production in the United States — which some say caused higher energy prices after the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine — energy prices have increased significantly since the Feb. 28 beginning of U.S. strikes against Iran.

“OK, so you talk about growing wages, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to their data— inflation is now outpacing wage growth, so if people are making more money but things are costing more, how do you answer that question and that concern?” Bream asked.

“That’s a technical matter that it’s the personal income report that came out last week that said that it was slightly negative, but personal income includes lots of things like transfers and food stamps and things that we have been reducing as part of our effort to make government leaner and meaner, and so the best measure right now is to look at the wage data,” Hassett replied. “That’s by far the best measure, and the real wage data are showing big increases right now.”

The average price of a gallon of gas in the United States at the time of writing Sunday was $4.336, according to AAA. This price is a $1.35 increase from the $2.98 per gallon recorded Feb. 26, days before the start of the U.S. military’s operations against Iran. That rate, however, is down nearly 18 cents from the previous week’s May 24 average price of $4.515 per gallon. In addition, the price of diesel fuel, widely used by farmers and the trucking industry, averaged $3.66 a gallon Feb. 15, and is, at the time of writing, $5.475 a gallon. That rate, however, is down almost 15 cents from the May 24 average price of $5.622 a gallon.