Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, responded to Lou Dobbs’ effusive praise of Donald Trump to tell viewers that Trump interrupted an economic briefing to call Dobbs. Although that might sound as though Trump cared more about chatting with a sycophant, Hassett suggested it showed how Trump is “super engaged.”
On Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs glowingly described Trump as “jawboning like no other has” on the economy and as “a booster of the highest order.”
Hassett replied:
“You're right, Lou, and as you know, that - I don't know if you covered this on this show, that the president, very often, when we're in there briefing him on the economy, will pick up the phone and call somebody. And we were just in there briefing him on these numbers earlier in the week, and he picked up the phone and called you. And so he is absolutely is super engaged.”
Hassett didn’t mention whether Trump had put Dobbs on speaker phone so that he could “advise” the council. But The Daily Beast reported last year that Dobbs has long served as an informal top adviser who gets patched into White House meetings:
During the first year of the Trump era, the president has patched in Dobbs via speakerphone to multiple meetings in the Oval Office so that he could offer his two cents, according to three sources familiar with these conversations. Trump will ask Dobbs for his opinion before and after his senior aides or Cabinet members have spoken. Occasionally, he will cut off an official so the Fox Business host can jump in.
Dobbs, these sources all independently recounted, has been patched in to senior-level meetings on issues such as trade and tax policy—meetings that featured officials such as senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, former top economic adviser Gary Cohn, former chief strategist Steve Bannon, trade adviser Peter Navarro, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
More recently, Trump reportedly sought input from Dobbs before deciding to end the government shutdown at the beginning of the year.
Recently, it has been reported that Fox chief Lachlan Murdoch wants to distance the network from Trump. Perhaps the bigger question is whether Trump is willing to distance himself from Fox?
See how Trump is “super engaged” with Fox below, from Fox Business’ March 20, 2019 Lou Dobbs Tonight, via Media Matters.
A perfect example of Lou’s cluelessness is the lower third: “TRUMP ECONOMY SOARS”. It’s just his show parroting Trump’s own sales talk. As has been pointed out outside of the Fox News propaganda bubble Trump and his sycophantic economic advisers made wild predictions of 4%+ growth and as high as 6% because of this tax cuts and abolishing regulations (like those protecting child from poisons). In fact, we saw one quarter after the tax cut around 4% followed by a trend line of constant decline ever since. Trump continues to make wild predictions of high economic growth in his budget totally out of step with the consensus of private and government economists. Pitiful results for his budget busting, debt magnifying tax cuts for the wealthy.
But what do you expect from Lou, a man so drunk on right-wing Kool Aid he sucked down hard on Birtherism?