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Article snippet: The Trump administration is telling Republican lawmakers to expect blockbuster economic figures Friday morning when the Commerce Department releases data on U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter. Kevin Hassett, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told Republican senators in a private meeting Wednesday that GDP for April through June is expected to be high enough to ensure the nation will see its first year of annualized 3 percent growth since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, according to several sources in the room. “He’s not ruling out a very big number,” said one grinning GOP senator who attended the meeting. The consensus estimate is for second-quarter GDP to come in at 4.2 percent, with some estimates as high as 4.8 percent. The U.S. economy expanded at a 2 percent rate in the first three months of the year, according to the most recent Commerce Department data. Hassett told GOP lawmakers that Friday’s figure is likely to be strong enough to put this year’s GDP on track to exceed 3 percent, something that never happened under former President Obama and a major Republican criticism of his administration during the 2016 campaign. “The Atlanta Fed estimated it can be as high as 4.8,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). “It’s going to be very strong.” “It’s a manifestation of what we did starting last year with the regulatory work — the pullback of regulations — the energy work that we did, the tax work and the Dodd-Frank,” he adde... Link to the full article to read more