In-town pool report #8: Second Hassett gaggle + Note on EO signing

First, a note on the EO signing event earlier this afternoon: POTUS did not take questions after signing the EO, and your pooler wasn’t able to hear any questions that reporters standing closer to the aisle may have asked.

Kevin Hassett spoke briefly with reporters at the sticks for a second time starting at 4:29 pm. His full remarks via Otter are here , and some highlights are below:

On POTUS’s plans to take his economic message on the road, and whether that’s similar to what his predecessor did:

• “Well, Trumponomics works and Bidenomics doesn’t, and so we’ve got lots of good news to report to the American people.”
• “The affordability gap that was created by Biden's runaway inflation is gradually being whittled away by the higher growth that we have, and the no tax on tips and no tax at overtime and so on. And so President Trump, for sure, is going to go out there and deliver the message. But in the end, the most important message is going to be what people see in their pockets, which is higher incomes and a higher ability to spend.”

On today’s movement in the markets:

• Markets are thinking the Fed is less likely to cut interest rates.
• Based on fundamentals, the two things that have changed since the second-to-last Fed meeting are a shutdown that lowered GDP projections and lower-than-expected inflation numbers.
• “The fact that the Fed would move from a posture of three rate cuts to two, after getting news that really says the opposite, makes you really wonder what they’re thinking over there.”

On affordability (he was asked a similar question this morning):

• “We're working overtime on reducing costs, both at the micro level, with our efforts on eggs, remember, and beef. But at the macro level, too — we've reduced the deficit so far this year by 300-something billion dollars already in this calendar year.”
• “We’re making up ground fast.”

Orion Donovan Smith

D.C. Reporter, The Spokesman-Review

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