President Donald Trump's top economic advisor Kevin Hassett drew mockery for inviting Americans to "imagine" lower fuel prices.
The president sent fuel costs soaring and shaken global markets with his war in Iran, and Hassett was asked Tuesday morning on CNBC whether the Federal Reserve should cut interest rates to curb inflation.
"Anyone who looks at a chart for energy prices will see that they've gone up quite a bit since the situation with Iran began," Hassett said. "But the president is confident that it can be resolved, and when it's resolved, that those prices will go right back down to where they were before, and then you pile on top of that the fact that core inflation is running around 0.2 percent. In fact, for the Consumer Price Index, it it rounded up to 0.2 [percent], it was actually in the 0.1 [percent] range.
"So when you've got that plus, imagine if oil prices start going back down because the situation resolves itself somehow, then you could be looking at inflation close to zero," he added. "So that's something that the Fed needs to pay attention to."
Hassett's explanation did not reassure critics on social media.
"John Lennon vibes," marveled X user Armando.
"Yes, the Fed often bases its monetary policy on wishful thinking," surmised writer Jared Ryan Sears.
"The feds need to pay attention to imaginary scenarios?" wondered X user Rodger Williams. "F------ brilliant."
"Sure, just like the Strait of Hormuz will 'open up on its own,'" doubted writer Christopher Gelarden. "It’s one of his new Jesus superpowers."
"So imagine if it wasn’t bad, it would be good," chirped X user Janet Kearney.
"F---, man, let's go a step further and imagine gas stations start paying us to fill our tanks," suggested Bluesky user Feminist Proper Gander.
"Imagine if the US had a competent president who didn't start a war with Iran because he carries a perpetual grudge against Obama," sighed Bluesky user Lucie Catnip.
"'Resolves itself somehow' is an amazing admission they have no plan for how to resolve this," noted Bluesky user Brent Travels.
