Hassett also insisted Tuesday that recent economic trends would not have any bearing on midterm elections.

“Right now, I guess the question is, are we confident that the economy is going to be strong this year? And we really are, because we have so many positive effects that we’re seeing in the data,” Hassett said. He argued that orders outnumbering shipments and an increase in hours worked reinforced his prediction that US GDP could grow between 4 and 5% this year.

“I’m not a political consultant; I’m an economist,” Hassett said later. “We’re making an enormous amount of progress,” including on core inflation, which excludes energy and food.