Hassett appeared on CNN\u2019s The Lead Thursday and was confronted with a new poll conducted by the network and SSRS,<\/a> which reported that 77 percent of respondents said they believed the nation\u2019s financial health was currently either very poor or somewhat poor.<\/p>\n The same study also found that 70 percent of those surveyed said they disapproved of President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s handling of the economy specifically while 73 percent were unhappy with him on inflation<\/a> and 79 percent were dissatisfied with him over gas prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some 65 percent of Americans said they believed Trump had actually made the economy worse since taking office, with just 22 percent seeing an improvement.<\/p>\n But Hassett was not convinced, insisting the signs are positive and that consumers are feeling \u201coptimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n Anchor Pamela Brown pushed back<\/a> on her guest\u2019s upbeat tone, telling him: \u201cWe have this poll where 77 percent of Americans say economic conditions are overall poor. That is the lowest of Trump\u2019s second term so far.<\/p>\n \u201cIs this the \u2018amazing economy\u2019 the administration thought you\u2019d all be boasting about when the \u2018Big, Beautiful Bill\u2019 was passed more than a year ago?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, again, right now the economy does look amazing to me,\u201d Hassett insisted. \u201cThe inflation\u2019s going down, the unemployment rate is low.\u201d <\/p>\n He went on to claim \u201calmost no one\u2019s getting fired\u201d and that final demand [a measure of goods and services purchased] is \u201cup about 4 percent,\u201d which is roughly what Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick<\/a> had predicted, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that what you\u2019re seeing is really, really strong growth,\u201d Hassett continued, saying he took confidence ahead of November\u2019s midterms from Yale professor Ray Fair\u2019s famous contention that people vote based on what\u2019s in their pockets.<\/p>\n Brown responded by pointing to the most recent jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, which showed the economy had added only around half the number of roles economists had forecast.<\/p>\n \u201cThe job growth cooled last month and 65 percent of people \u2013 these Americans, everyday Americans \u2013 they say President Trump\u2019s policies have worsened economic conditions in this country,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s 10 percent more than in the final months of the Biden administration. So, I mean, you say the economy looks \u2018amazing,\u2019 but what do you say to that person who\u2019s part of that group, that 66 percent who say Trump has actually made the economic conditions worse?\u201d<\/p>\n Hassett attempted to discredit the poll and reiterate the upbeat message with which he opened.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I just don\u2019t believe a poll like that, given how strong the numbers are and how strong income growth is, how optimistic people are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best measure of how optimistic people are is \u2013 are they consuming? What happens when people are pessimistic is they start doing what we call precautionary savings. They cut back expenditures because they\u2019re worried they might lose their job or something bad would happen in the future. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got strong consumption growth, like we\u2019re signing right now, then consumers are by definition very optimistic. They\u2019re not being cautious at all. So I just don\u2019t believe that poll.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite Hassett\u2019s dismissal of the survey\u2019s findings, voters have been warning the Trump administration for months that the affordability crisis remains their primary concern and that they do not feel the president is doing enough to address the situation.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s approval rating has tanked accordingly, with one poll released by Quinnipiac University Wednesday putting it as low as 32 percent<\/a> and another from AP-NORC a day later placing him at 33 percent<\/a>, bad news for Republicans already fearful of a wipeout come November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-797190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"National](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kevin-Hassett.png\")
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has insisted the U.S. economy ‘looks amazing\u2019 (The Lead\/CNN)<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2251064019.jpeg\")
President Donald Trump has failed to restore confidence in the economy, with 77 percent of people telling CNN\/SSRS that they believe it is in a very poor or somewhat poor state (Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Gas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2271203712.jpg\")
Gas prices are seen as a particular cause of concern, with 79 percent of poll respondents saying they disapproved of Trump\u2019s handling of the problem, not least because of the Iran war (Getty)<\/p>\n