Americans Say the Economy Is Worsening. Kevin Hassett Says They’re Wrong: “Real wages are going up.”

Consumer confidence just hit the lowest level ever recorded. Gas is averaging $4.56 a gallon, inflation is outpacing wage growth, and Americans’ economic pessimism has reached depths not seen since the worst of the post-pandemic era. Into that picture walked White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Sunday, telling ABC News that the grim headlines were missing the bigger story. His message: the economy is better than people think.

Appearing on ABC News’ “This Week” on May 31, 2026, Hassett told co-anchor Jonathan Karl that coverage was ignoring “a lot of really positive news.” “On balance, real incomes, real wages are going up,” he said. His argument centered on workers having more money in their pockets even after accounting for price increases, and he pointed to employment figures and stock market performance as evidence the broader economy was holding up.

But the Bureau of Labor Statistics told a different story: wages rose 3.6% year over year in April, while inflation rose 3.8%. That gap, narrow as it may appear, means the average worker’s purchasing power shrank in real terms last month. Hassett’s assertion that wages are winning the race against prices collides directly with the government’s own data — raising the question of which numbers the White House is choosing to emphasize.

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Surveys Show Americans Tuning Out the Optimism

Two major surveys released the same weekend Hassett made his remarks painted a starkly different picture. The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index fell for the third straight month in May 2026, dropping to a record low of 44.8, as Strait of Hormuz supply disruptions kept pushing gasoline prices higher. Three of the lowest consumer sentiment readings ever recorded in the survey’s 74-year history have now occurred within the past nine months.

The cost of living was the top concern cited in Michigan’s survey, with 57% of consumers spontaneously saying that high prices were eroding their personal finances. Hassett pushed back on the survey’s credibility during the ABC interview, calling it “extremely partisan” and claiming Democrats had inflated the index during the Biden years. Karl pressed him directly: “Are you saying Americans are not hurting?”

Hassett’s answer was a pivot to politics. “Look, in the end, people look at their wallets,” he told Karl. “They decide how to vote. And if they look at their wallets and look at how much money they have after the increase in prices, they’re going to find that they have a lot more money.” That framing, tying economic suffering to voter behavior rather than lived reality, drew the sharpest exchange of the entire interview.

Gas Prices at a Four-Year High, and a Warning From Inside the Industry

According to AAA, the national average price for regular gasoline hit $4.56 per gallon over the Memorial Day weekend, the highest in four years and up 54 cents from the previous month. The surge traces directly to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that handles roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. Hassett acknowledged the pain at the pump but insisted the situation was temporary and that the administration was working to minimize disruptions.

Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Neil Chapman issued a far more alarming assessment days before Hassett’s interview. Speaking at a Bernstein conference in New York, Chapman warned that oil inventories were approaching “unheard of” levels — “really, really low levels” — and that once those thresholds were crossed, prices would have no direction to go but up. The International Energy Agency confirmed that Iran’s closure of the strait represented the largest oil supply disruption in history.

Karl confronted Hassett with Chapman’s warning during the interview. Hassett dismissed it, insisting government and private inventories remained in “the billions of barrels” and that there was “plenty of runway.” Chapman had said the debate was simply over timing: “You can debate whether that’s going to hit those really low levels in two weeks or three weeks. Once you get to that point, then you’ll see price shoot up.” The White House and one of the world’s largest oil companies were now publicly contradicting each other on how much time was left.

The Numbers Behind the Reassurance Don’t All Point the Same Way

Hassett made a nearly identical argument on Fox News Sunday, telling host Shannon Bream that the typical American family had gained about $3,000 since President Trump took office, after having lost more than $3,000 in real terms under Biden. He cited wage data specifically — excluding figures on personal income, which he said were skewed by reductions in government transfers — as the “best measure” of household financial health right now.

On ABC, Hassett urged viewers to stop fixating on individual pressure points. “One of the things I’ve noticed here at the White House is, whatever piece of consumer price that is looking like it’s a little bit disappointing, it’s the only thing we talk about,” he said. He argued that employment growth, stock market gains, and rising corporate profits were feeding into salaries in ways the daily economic coverage was missing. The BLS data showing inflation ahead of wages did not appear in that framing.

Hassett’s “real wages are going up” claim is technically defensible — depending on the time window, the income measure, and which workers you’re counting. But the most recent monthly snapshot shows inflation outpacing wage growth, consumer sentiment at a historic low, and the world’s largest publicly traded oil company warning that a price shock is weeks away. The White House argument is not that Americans aren’t feeling pressure. It’s that they should feel less of it than they do — a position that tends to age poorly when the next gas receipt arrives.