
President Trump will appoint Kevin Hassett, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, as a top White House economic adviser, according to reports Friday.
Hassett will serve as the chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, Politico first reported. The position would be subject to Senate confirmation.
In recent weeks, there had been speculation that Trump would not fill out the council, instead relying on his National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and others for advice on policy matters.
Instead, he will turn to Hassett, a free-market economist whose current title is the State Farm James Q. Wilson Chair in American Politics and Culture at AEI.
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Unlike some of Trump’s closest advisers on economic affairs, Hassett does not have a track record of backing populist measures regarding immmigration and trade. Instead, he has advocated free trade, with tax reform, and has advised past Republican presidential candidates, including Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain and George W. Bush. Hassett has a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.