National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett went on Fox Business Wednesday and celebrated a surge in credit card spending, even as federal data show American households are borrowing at record levels, saving less, and paying the highest gas prices since July 2022.
"Credit card spending is through the roof," Hassett told host Maria Bartiromo. "They're spending more on gasoline, but they're spending more on everything else, too."
The remark landed the same day AAA released data showing average gas prices across the country hit $4.54 a gallon, the highest since the summer of 2022, with the cost of regular-grade fuel up 52% since the war in Iran began. Personal savings rates, meanwhile, sat at just 4.0% in the first quarter of 2026. And a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report found that U.S. credit card debt in the fourth quarter of 2025 jumped 5.5% from the year prior, amassing to $1.28 trillion.
Spending is through the roof, all right. So is the bill.
Hassett's upbeat framing treats rising credit card balances as proof of consumer confidence. But the underlying figures tell a different story, one of households stretched thin, leaning on plastic to cover necessities that cost more every month.
A 5.5% year-over-year leap in credit card debt is not a sign of prosperity when savings rates are simultaneously scraping along at 4.0%. That combination typically signals consumers are spending not because they feel flush, but because they have no other choice. Groceries still need buying. Gas tanks still need filling. And when wages don't keep pace, the difference goes on a card at double-digit interest.
The $1.28 trillion in total credit card debt reported by the New York Fed is a staggering figure. It reflects a consumer credit strain that has been building for years, driven by pandemic-era spending habits, persistent inflation, and interest rates that punish revolving balances.
Gas prices add another layer of pressure. At $4.54 a gallon, fuel costs eat into household budgets in ways that ripple through every other spending category, commuting, shipping, food transport. The 52% increase since the start of the Iran conflict means families who were already budgeting carefully now face a fuel bill that dwarfs what they paid just a couple of years ago.
Hassett is no stranger to consumer-finance policy. Earlier this year, the Washington Examiner reported that the NEC director said the Trump administration was in talks with major banks about voluntarily issuing so-called "Trump cards", credit cards capped at a 10% interest rate. The proposal targeted consumers with stable incomes who are underserved by traditional credit markets.
That initiative followed President Trump's public call for a one-year 10% cap on credit card interest rates. "Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one-year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10%," Trump wrote on Truth Social, as Newsmax reported.
The idea, however, ran headlong into practical and political obstacles. Banking trade groups warned that "a 10% interest rate cap would reduce credit availability" and could be "devastating for millions of American families and small businesses." House Speaker Mike Johnson said legislation would be needed to implement any cap, and no such bill has materialized.
So the administration proposed lower rates, the banking industry pushed back, Congress didn't act, and Americans kept borrowing at whatever rate their issuer charged. That context makes Hassett's celebration of soaring credit card spending ring hollow. If the White House recognized months ago that interest rates on revolving debt were too high, touting the volume of that same debt as an economic win is incoherent.
The gap between Washington's economic messaging and kitchen-table reality keeps widening. Officials point to spending metrics as evidence the economy is humming. Families see a different picture: inflation reports that look manageable in the headline but carry painful details in the categories that matter most, food, energy, housing.
When necessities like gasoline surge in price since the start of the year, consumers don't stop buying gas. They stop saving. They stop paying down balances. They start revolving debt at rates that compound fast.
A 4.0% personal savings rate means the average household is setting aside roughly four cents of every dollar earned. That is a thin cushion against any disruption, a job loss, a medical bill, an unexpected car repair. And for many workers, the labor market offers its own uncertainties. Permanent hiring has stalled in key sectors, replaced by temp positions that offer neither the stability nor the benefits that let families plan ahead.
Credit cards fill the gap. They always do. But mistaking that survival mechanism for economic vitality is a category error that no serious economist should make on national television.
There is an obvious reason for Hassett to spin the numbers this way. The administration needs an economic narrative heading into the second half of 2026. Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of GDP. If you can frame rising credit card balances as enthusiasm rather than desperation, the topline GDP number looks better.
But the New York Fed's own data undercut that framing. A $1.28 trillion credit card balance, growing at 5.5% annually, paired with a savings rate below the historical average is not the profile of a confident consumer. It is the profile of a consumer running out of room.
For households already navigating shifting credit rules and tighter lending standards, the last thing they need is a senior White House official treating their mounting debt as a talking point.
None of this means the administration caused every headwind consumers face. Energy prices tied to the Iran conflict, legacy inflation from the pandemic era, and structural shifts in the labor market all predate the current policy environment or operate beyond any president's direct control.
But when your own NEC director proposes a credit card interest rate cap because borrowing costs are crushing families, you cannot then turn around and brag that those same families are borrowing more than ever. The two positions cancel each other out.
Hassett told Bartiromo that Americans are "spending more on gasoline, but they're spending more on everything else, too." He meant it as good news. For the family filling up at $4.54 a gallon and putting dinner on a card they can't pay off this month, it is anything but.
Credit card spending through the roof is not a victory lap. It is a warning sign, and the people racking up those balances know it, even if Washington doesn't.