❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, is pushing back on a research paper published by the New York Federal Reserve Bank that claims tariff costs are predominantly being passed on to American consumers.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Kevin Hassett, President Trump, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and American consumers.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Hassett’s remarks were made on February 18, 2026, following the release of the New York Fed tariff study.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The paper is an embarrassment. It’s, I think, the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve System.” — Kevin Hassett
🎯IMPACT: The New York Fed research has fueled a new round of partisan attacks on President Trump’s tariff polices, despite a plethora of counter evidence.
President Donald J. Trump‘s Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, is pushing back on a research paper published by the New York Federal Reserve Bank that claims tariff costs are predominantly being passed on to American consumers. “The paper is an embarrassment,” Hassett said on Wednesday. He continued, “It’s, I think, the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve System.”
The top White House economic advisor went on to insist the methodology behind the research was so flawed that “the people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined.” Notably, the New York Fed research has fueled the latest round of partisan attacks on President Trump’s tariff polices, a fact highlighted by Hassett. He argued the Fed researchers “put out a conclusion which has created a lot of news that’s highly partisan based on analysis that wouldn’t be accepted in a first semester econ class.”
Despite the New York Fed’s claims, most economic data since the imposition of reciprocal tariffs last April have shown little movement in domestic consumer prices. Contrary to establishment predictions, consumer prices have not risen, leaving opponents scrambling to explain the data. A recent study by the San Francisco Fed—looking at 150 years of economic and trade data from the United States, the United Kingdom, and France—found that tariffs are not inflationary and more often than not, have deflationary effects that push prices downward.
The National Pulse reported last July that data shows U.S. import prices have risen less than expected since tariffs were imposed, indicating that foreign manufacturers have absorbed much of the burden. Additionally, economic data from China suggests that Trump’s tariff policies have had a significant impact on the communist regime’s economy.
Last December, Chinese Premier Li Qiang—the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) second most powerful leader next to President Xi Jinping—implicitly admitted that U.S. tariffs have caused widespread damage to his country’s economy. Data released by Chinese customs officials shows that exports to the United States fell 28.7 percent year on year in November. Notably, Chinese government data is often manipulated to present a more favorable picture than reality, suggesting that Trump tariffs have likely had an even more profound impact on Chinese exports.
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