The five people shaping Trump’s economic agenda

President Trump is relying on a cast of economic advisers with differing viewpoints and backgrounds as he implements a sweeping tariff agenda that has rattled financial markets and occasionally mixed messages.

There’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has taken the lead in negotiating trade deals and is viewed by Republican lawmakers and Wall Street executives as a steady hand.

There’s Peter Navarro, the prickly senior trade adviser who shares Trump’s unwavering views on tariffs and is staunchly loyal. There’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend of Trump’s who has caused some hiccups with his media appearances.

There’s also Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, and Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, two behind-the-scenes senior officials helping to shape, implement and message around Trump’s economic plans. 

Sources close to the White House said having officials with different views is not new for the president, and that it is ultimately Trump who makes the final calls when it comes to tariffs, trade and the economy. But those top economic aides have found themselves in the spotlight as economists warn of the potential fallout of Trump’s policies.

“They have different views on how to get from A to B,” said one former Trump White House official. “Frankly, that’s what Trump wants. He wants that ‘fight in front of me, and I’ll decide who wins.’”

Here are the five senior officials behind Trump’s economic agenda.

Scott Bessent

Bessent has seen his stock rise in the Trump White House in recent days, and there are indications his arguments are winning out with the president. 

Bessent was the Trump administration official the White House sent out to address reporters last week about a 90-day pause on steeper “reciprocal” tariffs after other economic advisers suggested there was no room to negotiate.

The Treasury secretary has led negotiations with Japan and other nations to try and broker trade agreements. Bessent was seated on the couch in the Oval Office during a meeting Thursday with the Italian prime minister, and Trump deferred to Bessent to speak about ongoing efforts to finalize agreements.

Bessent has reportedly cautioned Trump against trying to oust Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, citing the potential market fallout. And Bessent is seen by many inside and outside the administration as being able to articulate the president’s agenda in a way that appeals to both Main Street and Wall Street.

“The key is, who’s the best messenger for the group. Bessent is the best messenger,” said one Trump ally.

It’s been a notable rise for an official who was not a central figure in Trump World during the first administration. Bessent founded a hedge fund in 2015. Prior to that he worked for an investment firm managing the assets of the Soros family, the liberal mega donors and target of frequent GOP attacks and conspiracy theories.

Howard Lutnick

When Trump named Lutnick as his nominee for Commerce secretary, he said the Cantor Fitzgerald executive would “lead our tariff and trade agenda,” an early indication of how central Lutnick would be to the aggressive policies Trump wanted to pursue.

Indeed, Lutnick has been a key player in the administration’s various tariff rollouts and is frequently in Trump’s presence. But his media appearances in particular have frustrated some in the White House, sparking questions about the level of his influence. 

The Commerce secretary urged Americans to invest in Tesla stock during a Fox News interview in March. He was adamant Trump would not back off on his tariffs days before the president did just that. And he raised eyebrows when he suggested Trump’s trade policies would result millions of American jobs “screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones.”

Some Trump allies and Wall Street officials have pushed for Lutnick to take the blame if the White House’s tariff policies go awry and send the economy into a tailspin.

“Lutnick is clearly pissing some people off,” said one Republican strategist.

But Lutnick is unlikely to be pushed out any time soon, and he still has the president’s ear, sources told The Hill. 

He is a longtime friend of Trump’s and has donated millions to the president’s campaign. He is regularly spotted flying on Air Force One with Trump, and Lutnick was in the Oval Office for an executive order signing Thursday to tout efforts to expand U.S. seafood exports.

Peter Navarro

Navarro’s official title is senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. He and Trump are aligned on the use of tariffs as a tool to return manufacturing to the United States.

Navarro has led the charge on Trump’s tariff policies, advocating for each new round of duties on imports. He has argued for the importance of already imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as on automobiles. 

He was a staunch defender of the “reciprocal” tariffs that included a baseline 10 percent duty on imports, plus steeper penalties on dozens of other countries, framing it as a “national emergency” to bring back domestic manufacturing. Navarro at one point suggested it was not enough for Vietnam to remove all of its tariffs.

But his unwavering stance became out of step with others in the White House as Trump opened the door to talks, including with China. Navarro’s place in the pecking order came under further scrutiny when Elon Musk, the billionaire adviser to the president, publicly attacked him on social media. And he has not made many friends on Capitol Hill.

The White House has shrugged off the internal disagreements — “Boys will be boys,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters of the Musk-Navarro tiff.

Beyond that, Trump values Navarro’s loyalty. The trade adviser was also at the center of internal strife during the first administration, but was kept in the fold. Since then, Navarro spent time in prison for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Kevin Hassett

As chairman of the National Economic Council, Hassett is essentially Trump's top economic adviser.

He was deployed on the campaign trail to defend the president’s economic proposals, and he has taken on a similar role so far in the administration, appearing on television and in front of reporters to push back on criticism of tariffs.

Sources close to the White House told The Hill that Hassett does not always agree with the president behind the scenes. But in public, Hassett is seen as a consistent voice who remain on message and won’t get ahead of the president and what he might do.

For example, Hassett recounted in his 2021 memoir that he and other Trump advisers warned the president that firing the chairman of the Fed may not actually be possible, and would likely crash financial markets regardless of whether it was legal.

On Friday, he toed a careful line, telling reporters Trump and his team “will continue to study” whether the president can fire Jerome Powell and criticizing the Fed’s policies.

Hassett served during Trump’s first term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He also advised the White House on economic policy during the coronavirus pandemic, coming under scrutiny at one point when the CEA released a chart that projected U.S. COVID-19 deaths would drop off by May 2020.

Jamieson Greer

A lesser-known but equally important figure in trade talks is Greer, who serves as the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).

Greer served as chief of staff to then-trade representative Robert Lighthizer during the first Trump administration, giving him a front row seat and a prominent role in negotiations with China on tariffs and an eventual trade agreement. He was also part of talks to renegotiate NAFTA into the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA), which was signed in 2020.

Greer has a tendency to get overlooked when it comes to who is in the president’s inner circle on trade. Trump said Lutnick would oversee trade as part of his portfolio running the Commerce Department and the president himself has strong views on the issue.

And while Greer is statutorily the top White House trade negotiator, Trump has historically leaned on his Treasury secretary to lead major economic talks.

But Greer is respected within Trump world as someone with experience implementing the president’s agenda, and he indicated during his confirmation hearing that reducing trade deficits and boosting domestic manufacturing would be priorities. 

“I am convinced that we have a relatively short window of time to restructure the international trading system to better serve U.S. interests,” Greer told senators in February.