When President Donald Trump first imposed his "Liberation Day" tariffs in spring of 2025, he aimed to incentivize companies to make products in the United States and bolster hiring in the manufacturing sector. However, one administration official is now admitting the president's key economic policy has had the opposite effect.
During a recent interview on CNBC, Kevin Hassett – who is the director of the National Economic Council favored to be appointed as the next Federal Reserve chairman – admitted to host Carl Quintanilla that the U.S. economy had seen seven straight months of losses in the manufacturing sector according to figures released from November of 2025. However, Hassett maintained that the trend would reverse in 2026.
"We've been tracking groundbreakings of all these factories that have come forward from both the trade deals, like the drug companies on-shoring production for national security reasons, and we're up to around 30 groundbreakings since September," he said. "All those are going to create a lot of jobs moving into next year."
Financial journalist and commentator Brian Allen was skeptical of Hassett's claims, writing on X: "Under Donald Trump, America has now seen seven straight months of manufacturing job losses. Seven."
"While he sells 'America First' slogans, working Americans keep getting pink slips," he wrote. "This isn’t leadership. It’s economic erosion dressed up as patriotism."
The data also doesn't support the administration's bullish outlook on manufacturing jobs. According to a CNN report from late December, "industries that rely on manual labor are cutting jobs, not adding them." The network cited figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics finding that traditional blue-collar industries have been steadily shedding employees throughout the bulk of last year.
"You can’t say the economy is doing really well if these jobs aren’t growing alongside it," Fundstrat Global Advisors economic strategist Hardika Singh told CNN.
Watch the clip of Hassett's remarks below: