White House's Hassett acknowledges food, fuel prices 'still too high'

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Sunday that food prices and oil prices — key barometers of public sentiment ahead of US midterm elections — remain above the benchmarks the administration has set.

"Food prices are still high, and we have a lot of work left to do," Hassett said in a CNN interview that day.

On the impact of the Iran war on oil prices, he said current prices are "still higher than we'd like," but added that the administration has taken extensive steps to stabilize the Gulf region. "We expect prices to fall significantly thanks to all these new measures," he said.

Hassett noted that oil prices, which surpassed $100 per barrel at the height of the war, have since fallen to the high $70s to $80s range. He attributed the decline to US Navy escorts guiding vessels trapped in the Strait of Hormuz out of the Gulf, along with rising domestic output and measures such as Jones Act waivers. "The Jones Act waiver is allowing 100 million barrels of American crude to be shipped to the East and West coasts," he said.

The Trump administration has suspended the Jones Act, which restricts domestic port-to-port shipping to US-flagged vessels, in response to the oil price surge triggered by the Iran war. The waiver allows foreign ships to transport fuel within the United States, easing supply and relieving upward pressure on prices.

Hassett rebuffed criticism that the administration's tariff policy is passing costs on to consumers by driving up prices on imports and other goods, pointing to signs of easing in major inflation indicators.

When pressed on a recent Federal Reserve report finding that tariffs had been passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, Hassett said the June consumer price index came in negative. The June CPI, released last month, fell 0.4 percent from the prior month — a larger drop than markets had expected — the figure Hassett was citing.

He also pointed to the June personal consumption expenditures price index, which fell 0.1 percent from the prior month, saying "all inflation indicators are slowing." He then doubled down, arguing that while inflation was high under the previous administration, it has dropped sharply since Donald Trump took office — and that anyone claiming tariffs are pushing prices up needs to provide evidence to back that assertion.

Hassett went on to say the Trump administration's trade policies, including tariffs, amount to "a very, very successful trade policy," and doubled down on his view that companies are moving production facilities back to the United States and that the policies will generate jobs.