Kevin Hassett on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," May 3, 2026

Updated on: May 3, 2026 / 12:15 PM EDT / CBS News
The following is the transcript of the interview with White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on May 3, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We begin this morning with the director of the White House Economic Council.

Kevin Hassett joins us from Los Angeles.

Good early morning to you.

KEVIN HASSETT: Oh yeah, good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well Director, President Trump sent a letter to Congress on Friday saying a few things.

One that the conflict with Iran, the ceasefire has been extended.

He also said the hostilities have been terminated.

He also said the threat posed by Iran remains significant, and the force posture will continue to be updated.

Then overnight, we saw the President said Iran has not yet paid a big enough price for what they've done to humanity.

What exactly is the message to the market?

KEVIN HASSETT: Right.

Well, I think the market has been pretty consistent.

The fact is that what the President is seeing is that the blockade is working.

It's putting an enormous amount of pressure on Iran, and Iran's threats to put mines in the straits have even made it so that humanitarian aid that, of course, we would let through to Iran, that there are a lot of those ship captains that are wary of going to Iranian ports because they're worried about where the Iranians have put the mines.

And so, you know, I go down to the sit room many times a week and get briefed on what's going on in Iran, and they're an economy that's really on the precipice of extreme calamity.

They are having a hyper inflation.

They're starting to have hunger.

The bottom line is that the pressure on the great American people, because of these people who are like really intent on American and Israeli destruction with their nuclear weapons, are still in power.

One last thing, Margaret, I don't know if you noticed, but the UN Human Rights folks came out this week condemning Iran because they're killing people who are trying to stand up to this regime that's potentially, you know, causing starvation and even famine.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you said the blockade is still on.

A blockade is an act of war.

Are we at war with Iran?

KEVIN HASSETT: Iran shut down the straits.

Iran shut down the straits, and the only ones they were letting through were Iranian ships, and President Trump didn't think that was acceptable.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, we are still at war with Iran?

KEVIN HASSETT: You know what- I don't know what the definition of war is when we're not shooting and we're negotiating and they're under a lot of pressure.

There's no reason, I think, right now, to do anything other than what we're doing.

The fact is that that regime has destroyed the country.

Let me put it in perspective.

In 1978 before the Ayatollah came in, then the per capita GDP in Iran was about the same as for Japan and Italy.

Now it's about the same as for Honduras.

So they've run that country into the ground, and that's before the straits were closed.

So it's really, really a country that's on the rocks.

MARGARET BRENNAN:  Sure and we're negotiating with them.

But so we're going into week 10.

I'm wondering what economic modeling you have done here, because the President had originally said the war was going to last four to six weeks.

We are now at the national average gas price of $4.45 a gallon.

Can we end the conflict without taking back the Strait of Hormuz?

KEVIN HASSETT: Well, what's going on right now is that we're doing an all of the above approach to get energy to Americans and increase energy production around the world--
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- That takes time--
KEVIN HASSETT: -- And I think if you look out into the future, what people are saying- No.

So as an example, we waive the Jones Act.

The price of the US is $10 a barrel less than it is on the world- and in the world exchanges and all the west coast was buying world price of oil, but now they're buying US price of oil.

So we've made an enormous number of strides to reduce the short term disruption.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the Bank of America came out with a report this week that says the gas price spike has cost consumers $19 billion.

They say gas prices have canceled out nearly half of the increase in expected tax refunds.

Goldman Sachs concurs, saying the drag will offset the benefits from that tax bill the White House had championed.

Do you agree with that analysis?

No, that analysis is incorrect.

Like, think about it this way, 153 million people have filed taxes already, and the average tax refund is $3,600.

53 million people have benefited from no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security.

For the no tax on tips and Social Security that exempts between $7,000 and $8,000 from taxation for those people and for the no tax on overtime, it's like closer to $5000.

And so these are really, really big numbers, and if people look at their gas bills, of course, they're higher, and we're doing everything we can to make the temporary increase as small as possible.

But then finally, there's the economic growth component.

Real incomes are growing, and real incomes, when they adjust for inflation, include the price of energy, real incomes shrunk for almost eight years under Obama, they shrunk under Biden, and they're rising now despite the short term increase in gas prices.

Well, we did see an increase in the PCE.

But just to clarify the tax law that the President signed doesn't eliminate taxes on Social Security.

It gives seniors an enhanced standard deduction through the end of 2028.

But let me ask you about the news on Spirit Airlines--
KEVIN HASSETT: But that makes it so most people aren't covered- Yeah, I want to talk about Spirit.

I just go say that makes it so most people don't face the tax hike.

So you're you're right.

It's a technical matter, but it has the effect that we discussed.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Spirit Airlines ceased operations, as we said at the top of the program.

I know the White House was trying to craft an 11th Hour rescue plan.

What happened, and do you have a sense of the broader economic impact?

MARGARET BRENNAN: So the company--
MARGARET BRENNAN: You mentioned past financial troubles, unquestionably, Spirit did have them for many years, but they did have that restructuring deal with bond holders back in March.

In this statement, spirit released explaining why they were shutting down, they said, quote, "The sudden and sustained rise in fuel prices in recent weeks, ultimately has left us with no alternative." Are other industries also at risk of collapse, or other major companies due to this energy shock?

KEVIN HASSETT: Well, don't forget, the Spirit Airlines was Chapter 11 twice because they basically didn't—
MARGARET BRENNAN: I acknowledge that.

KEVIN HASSETT: —have a business model that was working.

That's right.

And the other airlines are still operating.

I just flew out here to discuss these matters at the Milken conference in LA, you know, on United Airlines and the you know, the other airlines are operating, what they've done because they have thought ahead way more than the management of Spirit is hedge their jet fuel purchases and so on.

So that energy short term energy shocks don't have a big effect on their business.

Certainly, it'll affect profits for the airlines for a quarter or so, but they're very, very healthy right now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Kevin Hassett, we'll let you get back to work.

Thank you for joining us this morning.

Face the Nation will be back in a minute.