A senior Trump official has boasted that Americans’ credit card spending is “through the roof” as millions across the country grapple with soaring costs of living including high gas prices, a slow job market and inflation.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett made the stunning remark to Fox News Wednesday in response to an initial question about the jobs outlook for the rest of the year.
After stating that the jobs market is going to be “very, very strong,” Hassett, the president’s top economic advisor, continued: “In fact, I had the head of one of the big five banks in my office yesterday going through the credit card data.
“And just as Secretary [Scott] Bessent said, credit card spending is through the roof. They’re spending more on gasoline, but they’re spending more on everything else, too.”
The backlash to Hassett’s remarks was immediate. “Working class Americans are maxing out their credit cards to pay for groceries and gas,” Democratic Representative and House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, posted on X. “The Trump Cartel thinks this is something to celebrate. Shameful.”
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office accused the Trump administration of being out of touch.
“The Trump administration is now CELEBRATING Americans paying more for gas and putting more on their credit cards,” it posted on X.
Other social media users joined in the outrage. “Any chance credit cards are being run up because take home pay doesn't cover everything any more,” an X user named Unvarnished Tooth asked. “Can the Trump Admin be any more out-of-touch than they seemingly are?”
The administration has deployed senior officials across news networks to try to combat the growing unpopularity of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, which has sent gas prices soaring and pushed inflation up from 2.4 percent in February to 3.3 percent in March. Recent polling revealed that 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.
Americans live with a crippling amount of credit card debt - $1.28 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve.
The average credit card interest rate is 22.3 percent on balances that aren’t paid off, one of the highest rates in the past 30 years, the Fed states.
Earlier this year, Trump contemplated capping credit card interest rates at 10 percent for one year - but banks pushed back, warning in a joint statement that a rate cap would make credit harder to get and consumers would be driven to high-cost, less-regulated alternatives. Experts believed that credit card companies would find ways to make consumers pay for the revenue lost from the interest rate cap, essentially canceling out the benefit of lower payments.
Roughly three-quarters of people are using credit cards to buy essentials, pay for medical bills and other routine living costs, according to a December study from Academy Bank. Around a third of the U.S. population were unable to pay their full credit card balance last year, a March study from the Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers revealed.
Some 55 percent of Americans believe their finances were getting worse, a Gallup poll found last month, higher than what consumers reported during the pandemic and the 2008 Great Recession.
“At first glance, credit card use seems like a positive force in the economy,” nonprofit financial wellness group Credit.org noted last year. “But when that spending is driven by credit card interest and unsustainable debt, it creates economic instability.”
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