Incoming US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday night that he has selected Kevin Hassett to be the director of the White House National Economic Council, filling a key position in his incoming administration.

Hassett served as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first term, and advised Trump on economic policy during the 2024 presidential campaign. A conservative economist who worked for the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank, the Hassett is currently a fellow in economics at the Hoover Institution, another right-leaning think tank.

The director of the White House National Economic Council is typically responsible for setting the president’s agenda on a wide range of economic policy issues, including taxes, trade, government spending, and more. Trump has pledged to extend the 2017 tax cuts and push for additional corporate tax cuts, and on Monday announced plans to impose new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China – the US’s top three trading partners.

“A good, conventional choice”

Ernie Tedeschi, who served as the top economist in the Biden administration, praised Hassett’s choice as “conventional (in a good way)” on the social media platform X.

Hassett will likely work closely with Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, if Bessett’s nomination is confirmed by the Senate.

Hassett has been a longtime supporter of tax cuts and helped provide economic analysis in support of Trump’s 2017 tax law. He is also widely seen by other economists as unlikely to support the more dramatic forms of tariffs Trump is proposing. The president-elect campaigned on a call for universal tariffs on all imports — a broader set of trade restrictions than the proposal he announced Monday.

Attorney Jamieson Greer is the new representative of the US government for international trade relations.