'You have to laugh': Disbelief as Trump official stuns internet with just three words

A Trump administration official raised more than a few eyebrows Thursday when he declared the president is creating a "new world order," using the same phrase popularized by right-wing conspiracy theorists who believe a secretive global elite is plotting to establish a totalitarian one-world government.

Kevin Hassett, a conservative economist who serves as director of the National Economic Council in the Trump administration, joined the Fox Business show "Making Money with Charles Payne," where he was asked what Americans could expect from President Donald Trump at the annual World Economic Forum held in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. The yearly get-together features global leaders from government, business, and civil society.

"There's gonna be some look at the new world order that President Trump is creating," Hassett answered.

He added: "And a lot of countries that were whining about tariffs six months ago and saying Trump's tariffs are going to harm their economies had pretty good years! And I think that's in part because people recognize that President Trump has made it so we are a shining city on a hill again. We are the engine of global economic growth because the U.S. really is that strong again."

Hassett's reply left observers in disbelief.

Andrew Egger of the anti-Trump publication The Bulwark wrote on X, "New world what now."

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann chimed in, "That's right: the fat stupid people are the messiahs now."

Immigration attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote on X, "You have to laugh at the far right freaking out for decades about the idea that liberals would create a 'new world order' only for Trump to come in and his officials are just out here going 'Oh yeah we're creating a new world order, that's a thing we're doing.'"

Mike Rothschild, a researcher on conspiracy theories, wrote, "A new world order, huh? Wasn't Trump supposed to be the guy who shattered the new world order and spread it to the four winds?"

Jim Stewartson, who writes about what he calls the "psychological war on democracy," wrote on X, "I swear to god, man… I’ve spent years listening to QAnon, MAGA, and neo-Nazis screech about a new world order being planned by the communist liberal deep state, and these a--holes just come out and say it. Surely the dot-connectors will figure it out now? Right??"