WH Adviser Kevin Hassett: Q2 GDP Could Be One of Biggest Drops Since Great Depression

Kevin Hassett, Senior Advisor to President Donald Trump and former White House Council of Economic Advisers chairman, said Monday that the United States’ second-quarter GDP could experience one the largest drops since the Great Depression due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

A transcript is as follows: 

REPORTER: There’s been some reporting that the concern, the immediate concern about not giving money any money to the states is that some of the states may have to start laying off first responders, police, firefighters, and the like. Is that your understanding of what seems to be holding up the bill right now.

KEVIN HASSETT: I’m not part of those negotiations, so I don’t know. But I can tell you absolutelty that if you look at state budgets, they’re in about the worst shape we’ve ever seen because the economy has ground to a halt. So I don’t know. We’re looking at a second-quarter GDP number that’s going to be one of the largest declines that we’ve seen since the Great Depression.