Trump Wants to Punish Economists That Don't Participate In His Groupthink

Mar 18, 2026 01:24 PM EDT, Wed

White House eyes punishments for economists who told the truth about tariffs, consumers

Donald Trump’s top economist didn’t just disagree with consensus economic research, he also suggested he wants to see researchers “disciplined.”

Feb. 18, 2026, 3:31 PM EST By Steve Benen

Throughout his second term, Donald Trump has heard economists tell him that American consumers will end up shouldering the increased costs associated with his trade tariffs. The president has consistently rejected those analyses, despite everything we know about Economics 101.

Unfortunately for the White House, almost a year after Trump advanced his tariffs agenda, experts have scrutinized the evidence and concluded that their predictions were correct. From the Congressional Budget Office to international scholars to the National Bureau of Economic Research, all of the available data points in the same direction: American consumers, not foreign companies, are paying more as a result of the Republican president’s policy.

Last week, still more evidence emerged. Research published by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Columbia University found that, through last fall, 90% of the economic burden from Trump’s tariffs fell on Americans, not foreigners.

The findings didn’t generate a ton of headlines or national discussion, which was understandable. After all, the economists and researchers had simply found evidence that proved what we already knew. That said, the reports made reality clear, in case there were any lingering doubts.

The trouble is, Team Trump doesn’t want economists and researchers to make reality clear.

During a Wednesday-morning appearance on CNBC, Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, not only disagreed with the extensive research, he also suggested that the Federal Reserve punish the researchers who worked with Columbia on a study the president didn’t like.

“The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined,” he said.

Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan, mocked Hassett’s on-air comments, writing via Bluesky, “Happy Kevin wants economists to be disciplined by their bosses for contradicting the regime’s understanding of The Truth.”

Paul Krugman released a related video on the subject, making a compelling case that Hassett’s call to discipline economists was “thuggish.” Krugman added, “That’s incredible. That’s like saying, ‘If you carefully study the data and come up with results that we in the Trump administration don’t like, we will punish you personally — or we will try to.”

In all likelihood, if the White House were serious about targeting the researchers, those efforts would fail. But as Krugman concluded, the public threat is itself “horrible.”

The war on dissent is ongoing, and there’s every reason to believe it’s getting worse.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

Merriam-Webster’s definition of “groupthink”: noun
group·​think \ ˈgrüp-ˌthiŋk <br />Definition
: a pattern of thought characterized by self-deception, forced manufacture of consent, and conformity to group values and ethics
//… many are suckered by group think, parroting whatever the last maniac at the conference said.
— PC Computing
First Known Use
1952, in the meaning defined above
History and Etymology

group entry 1 -think (as in doublethink)

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