Hassett, 57, who has served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers since September 2017, is leaving as Trump confronts an increasingly hostile trade war on two fronts — with China and with Mexico, the latter of which Trump threatened with tariffs last week if it doesn’t do more to stem illegal migration.
A longtime conservative economist, Hassett helped shape the 2017 Republican tax law and has been a staunch defender of the president’s policies on other issues. Historically, he has been an advocate of open trade policies, although in recent months he has been put in the position of defending Trump’s most confrontational approach.
View the complete June 2 article by Jeff Stein on The Washington Post website here.