President-elect Donald Trump is turning to two officials who know how to visit not only Washington but also major tax issues and tariffs as he fills his wealth group.
Trump on Tuesday announced that he has nominated international law attorney Jamieson Greer to be his US trade representative and Kevin Hassett to be director of the White House National Economic Council.
Although Trump has on several occasions appointed foreigners to high office, these choices show a recognition that his reputation depends on restoring public confidence in the economy.
The president-elect also announced other key public appointments, including Vince Haley, who led Trump’s speechwriting department in his first term, as director of the Domestic Policy Council.
Trump said in his speech that Greer supported his first term in raising tariffs on China and others and scrapping trade agreements with Canada and Mexico, “so it made it very good for American workers.”
Greer previously served as chief of staff to Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s former trade representative who was deeply skeptical of free trade. Greer is currently a partner at the law firm King & Spalding in Washington. He was not immediately available for comment.
If confirmed as a trade representative, Greer will be responsible for direct negotiations with foreign governments on trade and disputes, as well as membership in international trade organizations such as the World Trade Organization.
He told the New York Times in June that the Trump administration’s view is that the tariffs “could primarily help US manufacturing, especially as they address unfair trade practices.”
His appointment comes a day after Trump he promised to give a lot of new money on foreign goods entering the United States – including a 25% tariff on all goods entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% on tariffs from China – as one of his first orders.
As director of the White House National Economic Council, Hassett brings to the Trump administration a strong advocate for tax cuts.
Mr Trump said Mr Hassett would “play an important role in helping American families bounce back from the inflationary pressures brought on by the Biden Administration” and that together they would “reform and fix” the 2017 tax bill, most of which is expected to expire in 2025.
Hassett, 62, served in Trump’s first term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He holds a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017.
As part of a farewell announcement for Hassett in 2019, Trump called him a “true friend” who did a “good job.” Hassett became a fellow at the Hoover Institution, located at Stanford University. He later returned to leadership to help fight the epidemic.
In Trump’s second term, Hassett joins the White House in seeking to preserve and expand his 2017 tax cuts at a time when interest rate pressures are weighing on government borrowing costs.
He also said that reducing taxes would help increase household income. The inflation-adjusted median income jumped more than $5,400 in 2019 to $81,210. But the tax cuts also came with a huge budget deficit because any economic gains could not offset the losses, which created a problem for the incoming Trump administration to control the debt even as they cut taxes and tried to stop inflation.
Also included in Tuesday’s selection announcements was business investor, campaign donor and art collector John Phelan, the nominee for Navy secretary. Phelan co-founded MSD Capital, Michael’s private equity firm Dellfounder and CEO of Dell Technologies. It is unclear whether Phelan served in the Navy or the Army.
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