President-elect Donald J. Trump has added multiple new players to his team in a flurry of picks late on Nov. 26.
Trump named Jamieson Greer as U.S. Trade Representative, a key role in implementing his economic policies, under the Department of Commerce.
Trump also named first-term veteran Kevin Hassett as director of the National Council of Economic Advisors and Vince Haley as director of the Domestic Policy Council.
Greer is a trade specialist who served as chief of staff to then-U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in the first Trump administration.
“Jamieson played a key role during my first term in imposing tariffs on China and others to combat unfair trade practices, and replacing the failed [North American Free Trade Agreement] deal with [United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement], therefore making it much better for American workers,” Trump wrote of Greer, now an attorney with the international team at King & Spaulding.
He described Lighthizer, at times expected to reprise his role, as “a spectacular leader and person.”
Greer’s biography on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission states that he “participated in every major Administration trade action initiated during his three years” at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The Iraq war veteran has degrees from Panthéon-Sorbonne, Sciences Po Paris, and the University of Virginia.
Trump likewise lauded Hassett.
“He will play an important role in helping American families recover from the inflation that was unleashed by the Biden administration. Together, we will renew and improve our record tax cuts, and ensure that we have fair trade with countries that have taken advantage of the United States in the past,” Trump wrote.
Haley, who served as a speechwriter during the first Trump term, was described by the president-elect as “very well-educated.”
Haley “has a brilliant mind for Policies that work for the American People,” Trump wrote.
A veteran of the American Enterprise Institute, the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors, and multiple Republican presidential campaigns, Hassett led the Council of Economic Advisors during the first half of the first Trump presidency. He was replaced by Tomas Philipson.
The directors of the National Economic Council (NEC) during the first Trump term were Gary Cohn and Larry Kudlow.
The economist also frequently appeared on television during his time in the first Trump administration. He remained a defender of the president-elect’s economic policies in the run-up to his presidential victory earlier this month.
Ahead of Election Day, Hassett appeared on CNBC to argue that Trump’s measures would spur supply-side growth, thereby also counteracting inflation.
He also spoke about the president’s ambitious tariff proposals, likelier to rattle markets than his efforts to make tax cuts from his first administration permanent.
“What tariffs are actually going to make it through Congress? My view is that the most likely thing to go through Congress is the Reciprocal Trade Act, which the president talked about at Madison Square Garden just this weekend, where we just set our tariffs to the tariffs that other countries charge us, so that they lower their tariffs,” he said.
Trump has announced plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada in Mexico until they change border-related policies to better address illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
The National Economic Council falls within the Executive Office of the President. That puts it alongside other critical offices, including the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, and the National Security Council.
President Bill Clinton created it at the start of his first term in 1993. Its first director was Robert Rubin.
The head of NEC collaborates with other agencies and departments with the objective of furthering the president’s economic program. It’s roughly akin to the National Security Council, which has a similar function with respect to defense and foreign affairs, and the Domestic Policy Council which is to be helmed by Haley.
Economist Lael Brainard is the Biden administration’s NEC director. She too is a veteran of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
