On this “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan:
- White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett
- Minneapolis Fed president and CEO Neel Kashkari
- Chevron CEO Mike Wirth
- Rep. Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado
- Sen. Raphael Warnock, Democrat of Georgia
Click here to browse full transcripts from 2026 of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m Margaret Brennan in Washington.
And this week on Face the Nation: Gas prices spike, as the standoff between the U.S. and Iran continues. And a Supreme Court decision weakening the Voting Rights Act sparks a scramble in some Southern states to get in on redistricting before the midterm elections.
With his approval ratings on a downward trend, President Trump visited a Florida retirement community to conduct a survey of his own.
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DONALD TRUMP (President of the United States): Let’s do another poll. No tax on tips.
(CHEERING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No tax on overtime.
(CHEERING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No tax on Social Security.
(CHEERING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That’s the one they like.
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MARGARET BRENNAN: But with the conflict in Iran stalled, as well as the ships in the Strait of Hormuz, gas prices have skyrocketed, up 40 cents a gallon in the U.S. just in the last week. The president promises they will come down, and says, look on the bright side.
(Begin VT)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The stock market is rocking and rolling. Your 401(k)s are at the highest they have ever been.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We will take a deep dive on the state of the economy with White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, the head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, Neel Kashkari, and the chairman and CEO of Chevron, Mike Wirth.
Then: President Trump tells Congress the war with Iran has been terminated. We will talk to Colorado Democrat Jason Crow. And we will assess the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to limit the scope of part of the Voting Rights Act with Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock.
It’s all just ahead on Face the Nation.
Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation.
It has been another one of those weeks where some very big news stories now feel very much in the rearview mirror. One such story is that Congress finally, by voice vote, no less, after 76 days, ended the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. So, now TSA agents and the Coast Guard are fully funded.
Still unfunded, though, are the two immigration agencies, ICE and CBP. But the story that’s not going away is the impact the war with Iran is having on the global economy. Rising fuel costs were a factor in the shutdown of low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines yesterday.
And the sudden shutdown left thousands stranded and some 14,000-plus employees without jobs, according to the pilots union.
We begin this morning with the director of the White House Economic Council. Kevin Hassett joins us from Los Angeles.
Good early morning to you.
KEVIN HASSETT (Director, National Economic Council): Oh, yes, good morning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Director, President Trump sent a letter to Congress on Friday saying a few things, one, that the conflict with Iran, the cease-fire has been extended. He also said the hostilities have been terminated. He also said the threat posed by Iran remains significant, and the force posture will continue to be updated.
Then, overnight, we saw the president said Iran has not yet paid a big enough price for what they’ve done to humanity. What exactly is the message to the market?
KEVIN HASSETT: Right.
Well, I think the market has been pretty consistent. The fact is that what the president is seeing is that the blockade is working. It’s putting an enormous amount of pressure on Iran, and Iran’s threats to put mines in the straits have even made it so that humanitarian aid that, of course, we would let through to Iran, that there are a lot of those ship captains that are wary of going to Iranian ports because they’re worried about where the Iranians have put the mines.
And so, you know, I go down to the Sit Room many times a week and get briefed on what’s going on in Iran, and they’re an economy that’s really on the precipice of extreme calamity. They are having hyperinflation. They’re starting to have hunger.
The bottom line is that the pressure on the great American people, because of these people who are, like, really intent on American and Israeli destruction with their nuclear weapons are still in power.
One last thing, Margaret. I don’t know if you noticed, but the U.N. Human Rights folks came out this week condemning Iran because they’re killing people who are trying to stand up to this regime that’s potentially, you know, causing starvation and even famine.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you said the blockade is still on. A blockade is an act of war. Are we at war with Iran?
KEVIN HASSETT: Iran shut down the straits. Iran shut down the straits.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
KEVIN HASSETT: And the only ones they were letting through were Iranian ships. And President Trump didn’t think that was acceptable.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, we are still at war with Iran?
KEVIN HASSETT: You know, what – I don’t know what the definition of war is when we’re not shooting and we’re negotiating and they’re under a lot of pressure.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
KEVIN HASSETT: There’s no reason, I think, right now, to do anything other than what we’re doing. The fact is that that regime has destroyed the country.
Let me put it in perspective. In 1978, before the ayatollah came in, then the per capita GDP in Iran was about the same as for Japan and Italy. Now it’s about the same as for Honduras.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
KEVIN HASSETT: So they’ve run that country into the ground, and that’s before the straits were closed.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. And we’re…
KEVIN HASSETT: So, it’s really, really a country that’s on the rocks.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Sure. And we’re negotiating with them.
But – so we’re going into week 10. I’m wondering what economic modeling you have done here, because the president had originally said the war was going to last four to six weeks. We are now at the national average gas price of $4.45 a gallon. Can we end the conflict without taking back the Strait of Hormuz?
KEVIN HASSETT: Well, what’s going on right now is that we’re doing an all- of-the-above approach to get energy to Americans and increase energy production around the world.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That takes time.
KEVIN HASSETT: And I think, if you look out into the future, what people are saying – no, so, as an example, we waived the Jones Act.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
KEVIN HASSETT: The price of the U.S. is $10 a barrel less than it is on – in the world – and in the world exchanges. And all the West Coast was buying world price of oil, but now they’re buying U.S. price of oil.
So we’ve made an enormous number of strides to reduce the short-term disruption.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Bank of America came out with a report this week that says the gas price spike has cost consumers $19 billion.
They say gas prices have canceled out nearly half of the increase in expected tax refunds. Goldman Sachs concurs, saying the drag will offset the benefits from that tax bill the White House had championed.
Do you agree with that analysis?
KEVIN HASSETT: No, that analysis is incorrect.
Like, think about it this way; 153 million people have filed taxes already, and the average tax refund is $3,600; 53 million people have benefited from no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security.
For the no tax on tips and Social Security, that exempts between $7,000 and $8,000 from taxation for those people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well…
KEVIN HASSETT: And for the no tax on overtime, it’s like closer to $5,000. And so these are really, really big numbers.
And if people look at their gas bills, of course, they’re higher, and we’re working – doing everything we can to make the temporary increase as small as possible.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
KEVIN HASSETT: But – and then, finally, there’s the economic growth component. Real incomes are growing. And real incomes, when they adjust for inflation, include the price of energy. Real incomes shrunk for almost eight years under Obama. They shrunk under Biden. And they’re rising now despite the short-term increase in gas prices.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we did see an increase in the PCE.
But, just to clarify, the tax law that the president signed doesn’t eliminate taxes on Social Security. It gives seniors an enhanced standard deduction through the end of 2028. But let me ask you about the news on Spirit Airlines.
KEVIN HASSETT: Well, but that makes it so most people aren’t covered – yeah, I want to talk about Spirit. I was just going to say, that makes it so most people don’t face the tax on – so you’re right as a technical matter, but it has the effect that we discussed.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, Spirit Airlines ceased operations, as we said, at the top of the program.
I know the White House was trying to craft an 11th-hour rescue plan. What happened? And do you have a sense of the broader economic impact?
KEVIN HASSETT: Oh, sure.
You know, it’s something that I was very much involved in. We were aware that, because the merger between JetBlue and Spirit was canceled unwisely by the Biden administration, that Spirit, sadly, was on the ropes, when we looked at their books, that basically, the creditors were going to liquidate them and try to sell their assets so that they could get some of the money back that they had lent them.
And there were some authorities that were explored to see if we could help them get a lifeline. And, in the end, the legal – legal guys decided that those authorities wouldn’t apply in this situation.
Meanwhile, while that was being investigated, Secretary Duffy and I talked to the other airlines to make sure that they were helping people who were stranded by Spirit get home, and to get home, basically at much lower prices than the normal fares that they would charge.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So the company – go ahead.
KEVIN HASSETT: In fact, American and United and Southwest have all said that they’re going to help the passengers of Spirit get home.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you mentioned past financial troubles. Unquestionably, Spirit did have them for many years. But they did have that restructuring deal with bond holders back in March.
In the statement Spirit released explaining why they were shutting down, they said – quote – “The sudden and sustained rise in fuel prices in recent weeks ultimately has left us with no alternative.”
Are other industries also at risk of collapse, or other major companies due to this energy shock?
KEVIN HASSETT: Well, don’t forget that Spirit Airlines was Chapter 11 twice because they basically didn’t…
MARGARET BRENNAN: I acknowledged that.
KEVIN HASSETT: … have a business model that was working. That’s right.
And the other airlines are still operating. I just flew out here to discuss these matters at the Milken Conference in L.A., you know, on United Airlines. And the – you know, the other airlines are operating. What they’ve done, because they have thought ahead way more than the management of Spirit is hedge their jet fuel purchases and so on, so that energy – short-term energy shocks don’t have a big effect on their business.
Certainly, it’ll affect profits for the airlines for a quarter or so, but they’re very, very healthy right now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Kevin Hassett, we’ll let you get back to work. Thank you for joining us this morning.
(LAUGHTER)
KEVIN HASSETT: Thanks. Great to be here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Face the Nation will be back in a minute.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Neel Kashkari, who is the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of…
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