National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett pushed back hard on Sunday against the narrative that the American economy is heading south, telling ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl that "really positive news" on wages and incomes is being ignored by outlets fixated on negative polling.
Hassett's argument is simple: paychecks are growing, and Americans will notice when they open their wallets. The problem for the White House is that two major surveys say voters have already opened their wallets, and don't like what they see.
The clash between Hassett's optimism and the hard numbers beneath it captures a broader tension in Washington right now. The administration points to real wage gains. The press points to consumer sentiment craters. Both sides have data. Neither side is telling the whole story.
Hassett leaned into Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing wages rose 3.6% over the previous year. He told Karl that the broader picture favors working Americans.
"Look at what's happening to real wages. On balance, real incomes, real wages are going up."
That is true as a directional matter. Wage growth has been positive. But the same BLS report Hassett cited also showed inflation running at 3.8%, outpacing those wage gains in April. In other words, the average worker's raise did not fully cover the average worker's rising costs.
Hassett did not dwell on that gap. Instead, he projected confidence that Americans would ultimately judge the economy by what's left in their bank accounts after bills are paid.
"Well, look, in the end, people look at their wallets, and they decide how to vote, and if they look at their wallets and look at how much money they have after the increase in prices, they're going to find that they have a lot more money."
That's a bet, not a statistic. And the polling data Karl raised suggests the bet isn't paying off yet.
Gallup reported that Americans' economic confidence fell to its lowest level since October 2022. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey was even bleaker: sentiment declined for a third consecutive month, dropped 10% since April, and hit its lowest level on record.
Those are not minor readings. Record-low sentiment means Americans feel worse about the economy right now than they did during the worst months of the pandemic recovery, worse than during the 2022 inflation spike, worse than at any point the University of Michigan has measured.
Hassett's response was not to dispute the surveys but to argue they don't capture the full picture. He wants voters to compare their real purchasing power, wages minus price increases, rather than answer pollsters based on headlines and gas-pump sticker shock.
There is something to that argument. Consumer sentiment surveys are notoriously mood-driven. They reflect media coverage, partisan framing, and short-term price spikes as much as they reflect actual household finances. Conservative economists have long noted that sentiment can lag real conditions by months.
But dismissing record-low confidence as a media artifact carries its own risks. If voters feel poor, they vote poor, regardless of what the BLS spreadsheet says. The administration's challenge is bridging that gap before it hardens into a political verdict. On the policy front, the White House has moved aggressively in other areas to demonstrate results, including winning a key appeals court ruling on deportation authority that reinforced its commitment to border enforcement.
Karl pressed Hassett on rising energy prices, which are tied to the ongoing conflict with Iran and broader Middle East instability. He cited Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Neil Chapman, who recently warned that oil inventories are low and that prices could increase significantly in the coming weeks.
Hassett acknowledged the problem but framed it as temporary and manageable.
"That's extremely frustrating, and it's something that we're working on doing lots of different things to minimize the disruption, and hopefully, again, the problem of the Gulf will be over soon, and then things will go back to normal."
On inventories, Hassett pushed back directly against Chapman's warning. He said the White House tracks inventories daily and that the country started with "billions, billions of barrels of private and government inventories" and remains well-stocked.
"We track inventories every day. We started out with billions, billions of barrels of private and government inventories, and we still are in the billions, and so there's plenty of runway."
That's a notable disagreement with a senior executive at the nation's largest oil company. Chapman's job is to understand supply. Hassett's job is to project confidence. When those two imperatives collide, the truth usually lands somewhere in between.
The energy question also carries political baggage. Democrats have spent years fighting domestic energy production and opposing strategic reserve management, only to reverse course when prices spike. The irony of Chuck Schumer urging the administration to tap reserves he once fought to keep empty has not been lost on Republican strategists.
Hassett's core complaint, that genuinely positive economic data gets buried under negative framing, is not new, and it is not wrong. Major outlets routinely lead with sentiment surveys and inflation fears while burying wage-growth figures deep in their coverage. The result is a public that hears about prices going up but rarely hears about paychecks going up, too.
That said, Hassett's framing has its own blind spot. Wages rising 3.6% while inflation runs at 3.8% is not a story of workers getting ahead. It is a story of workers treading water. Calling that "really positive news" stretches the definition. The positive news is that wages are rising at all. The less positive news is that they are not rising fast enough to outrun costs.
The administration has other levers it can pull. Executive actions targeting financial networks that facilitate illegal immigration and cross-border crime, for instance, are part of a broader effort to crack down on institutions that undermine lawful economic activity. Those moves may not show up in consumer sentiment surveys immediately, but they signal a willingness to use every available tool.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve remains a wild card. The White House has made clear it expects monetary policy to support growth rather than constrain it, a position that has generated friction with institutional players who prefer the Fed's independence to remain untouched. That tension between the administration and the Federal Reserve is unlikely to resolve itself quietly.
Give Hassett credit for one thing: he is correct that media coverage shapes economic perception in ways that often distort reality. When outlets lead every broadcast with gas prices and bury job numbers, the public gets a skewed picture. That has been true under administrations of both parties, and it is worth calling out.
But the answer to bad framing is not counter-framing that cherry-picks the good numbers and waves away the bad ones. The BLS data shows wages trailing inflation. Gallup shows confidence at a multi-year low. Michigan shows record pessimism. An Exxon Mobil executive warns about supply constraints. Those are not media inventions.
The White House would be better served by acknowledging the squeeze voters feel and then making the case for why its policies, on energy, trade, regulation, and fiscal discipline, will close the gap. That is a harder argument to make on a Sunday morning show. But it is a more honest one, and honesty tends to age better than spin.
The broader political landscape favors an administration willing to show results across multiple fronts. Building alliances, as seen in the renewed partnership between the White House and Florida's governor, signals a party consolidating for the fights ahead rather than resting on talking points.
Americans don't need to be told the economy is great. They need to see it in their grocery bills, their gas tanks, and their savings accounts. Until those line up with the White House's optimism, no amount of Sunday morning salesmanship will close the deal.
