US President-elect Donald Trump is turning to two officials with experience not only in Washington but also in key issues such as income taxes and tariffs when forming his economic team, US media reported.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that he had chosen international trade lawyer Jamieson Greer to be the US Trade Representative and Kevin Hassett to be the director of the White House National Economic Council.
While in a number of cases Trump has appointed people from the outside to key positions, the appointments reflect a recognition that his reputation will depend on restoring public confidence in the economy.
The President-elect also announced a number of other key personnel decisions, including Vince Haley, who led the speechwriting department in Trump’s first term, as director of the Domestic Policy Council.
In a statement, Trump noted that in his first term, Greer was instrumental in enacting tariffs against China and other countries, as well as replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “making it much better for American workers.”
Greer previously served as chief of staff to Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s former trade representative, who is deeply sceptical of free trade. Greer is currently a partner at the law firm King & Spalding in Washington.
If confirmed as trade representative, Greer would be responsible for negotiating directly with foreign governments on trade deals and disputes, as well as membership in international trade bodies such as the World Trade Organisation.
He told The New York Times in June that Trump officials believe the tariffs “can help support US manufacturing jobs, especially to the extent that they correct unfair trade practices.”
His appointment came a day after Trump promised to impose huge new tariffs on foreign goods entering the US – including a 25 per cent tax on all goods entering the country from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10 per cent tariff on goods from China – as one of his first executive orders.
As director of the White House National Economic Council, Hassett brought one of the Trump administration’s top proponents of tax cuts.
Trump said Hassett would “play an important role in helping American families recover from the inflation unleashed by the Biden administration” and that together they would “renew and improve” the 2017 tax cuts, many of which expire after 2025.
Hassett, 62, served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first term. He earned his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-liberal American Enterprise Institute before Trump entered the White House in 2017.
In Hassett’s farewell statement in 2019, Trump called him a “true friend” who did a “great job.” Hassett became a fellow at the Hoover Institution, based at Stanford University. He later returned to the administration to help manage the pandemic.
In Trump’s second term, Hassett will join a White House seeking to preserve and expand tax cuts enacted in 2017 at a time when budget deficits are weighing on the cost of federal borrowing.
Also announced on Tuesday was the nomination of private investor, campaign donor and art collector John Phelan, who was selected to be Secretary of the Navy. Phelan co-founded MSD Capital, the private equity firm of Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies. It is not known whether Phelan served in the Navy or the Army.
