President Trump’s chief economic adviser leveled a reporter’s question about federal job cuts with a no-nonsense response.
The director of the National Economic Council spoke at a White House press briefing on Thursday, addressing the administration’s latest efforts to cut wasteful spending across federal agencies and departments as he defended the need to let staff go in some cases.
“I think our objective is to make sure that the employees that we pay are being productive and effective,” he said as he responded to a question about IRS agents being fired.
“I think that it’s absolutely something that is on the table for good reasons. And the point is that — don’t just talk about the IRS. Talk about all of government, that there are so many places…” he continued, “nobody is going into the buildings. People aren’t commuting because nobody is doing their job.”
“So, you’re saying that everybody who’s being let go was doing a bad job?” the reporter asked.
“I’m saying that we’re studying every agency and deciding who to let go and why, and we’re doing so very rationally with a lot of support from analysis,” Hassett said.
“Because we’re being told by a lot of people who have been let go at other agencies that they were told they were being dismissed because of poor performance, when, in some cases, they haven’t even had a performance review yet because they’ve only been on the job a couple of months,” the reporter pressed.
Hassett shut down the narrative with a simple response.
“Yeah, I’ve never seen a person who was laid off for poor performance say that they were performing poorly,” he quipped, getting some laughs as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt returned to the podium.
“Good point,” she told Hassett.
THIS IS BRUTAL! Trump’s economy guy, Kevin Hassett, just took a fake news reporter’s soul.
Reporter: “People who have been let go at other agencies that they were told they were being dismissed because of poor performance when in some cases they haven’t even had a performance… pic.twitter.com/19nZq0pCnz
— George (@BehizyTweets) February 20, 2025
Social media users entertained by Hassett’s response took to X to applaud his direct approach.
Thanks for wasting everyone’s time with a stupid question. Next!
— Ryan Jacobsen (@Dndbreakfast) February 20, 2025
She says “good point”
Slaughtered.
— Brett Casey (@brettcasey) February 21, 2025
The HR in me loved that response!
— Jo Snyder (@josnyder72) February 20, 2025
The stuff Democrats dont understand… performance metrics
— Petya (@PetyaDog13) February 21, 2025
Hitting gotcha media folks head on with a wrecking ball. Awesome
— I Am The Law_Dread (@tatara1294) February 20, 2025
Common Sense takes another scalp!
— I LIKE IKE (@JBONZ47763) February 20, 2025
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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