Millionaire and Forbes magazine publisher Malcom Forbes once said that the person who “dies with the most toys wins.” But with his tariff policies driving up the cost of Christmas presents during the holiday season, President Donald Trump appears to be taking the opposite position.
The president was two-thirds of the way through a vote-turning rally appearance in Pennsylvania aimed at highlighting his economic performance Tuesday, when he began defending his use of tariffs as necessary to protect the U.S. steel industry even as it raises prices in other sectors.
“You know, you can give up certain products. You can give up pencils. That’s under China policy… each child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two… they don’t need that many. But you always need steel,” he said.
Further on, Trump opined that Americans “don’t need 37 dolls” for their daughters. “Two or three is nice, you don’t need 37, so we are doing things right. We are running this country well,” he added.
It was a startling austerity message from a man whose net worth is estimated at between $5 billion and $7 billion, and who has filled his Cabinet and his administration with millionaires and billionaires, while covering surface after surface of the White House with what he claims is 18-karat gold paint — not to mention the $300 million gold-plated ballroom he is building where the historic East Wing stood before he had it demolished two months ago.
Since returning to power, he has invoked never-before-claimed emergency powers to impose, by executive fiat, a series of import taxes on goods from America’s largest trading partners, including China, where as many as 80 percent of toys imported into the U.S. are manufactured.
The result is a sharp increase in the prices consumers pay this holiday season, a reality that runs counter to his claim that his government has successfully lowered the cost of living from levels that made inflation a major factor in last year’s election.
In an interview with Politics released Tuesday morning, he claimed his record on the economy should be rated “A-plus-plus-plus-plus,” despite polls showing only about a third of voters approve of his efforts to lower prices during his first 10 months back in the White House.
And speaking that evening at a casino in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, he recited stock lines about an “amazing … transformation of our country” since his return to the White House, claiming that “prices are way down,” in part due to his administration’s green light on oil exploration across the country.
But in some ways his claim that “two or three” dolls would be enough for young girls is consistent with his view that things have improved when he compares his comments on Tuesday with what he said at a Cabinet meeting in April, when he dismissed concerns that the massive import taxes he unveiled at an April 2 event he called “Liberation Day” could lead to shortages or higher prices.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to defend the comments during a news conference Thursday, telling reporters that Trump’s intention was to encourage parents to buy American-made dolls when he commented on the number of dolls a hypothetical young girl would need.
“You might pay a dollar or two more, but you’ll get better quality, and you’ll support your fellow Americans by buying American, and that’s what the president said,” she said.
Although Leavitt declined to respond to questions about the accuracy of Trump’s comments, members of the U.S. Senate largely described the remarks as off-the-cuff and heavy-handed — when responding to questions.
One member of the House, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a staunch Trump defender, was not interested in the issue. The independent “That’s a stupid question” as he entered an elevator on his way to a vote.
When asked to respond to the President’s call for parents to potentially limit doll purchases when approached while returning to his opening. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a fellow Republican who has a 5-year-old daughter, joked that he wished someone would say the same to her.
When asked how many she has, Hawley replied, “It’s a lot more than three. I don’t know, I’d have to spend a lot of time counting.”
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat who is also senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, said The independent that “Georgia parents trying to turn their lives around don’t need shopping advice from the President of the United States.”
“They need him to do what he said he was going to do and tackle the affordability crisis, which he is now calling a hoax,” Warnock said.
When pressed further on how many dolls his young daughter has, he replied, “You have to ask my daughter.”
Another parent of young girls, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, said Trump’s call for budget cuts shows how he is “completely out of touch with the American people and how they are struggling.”
She suggested that Trump was advocating “rationing” of dolls and asked, “What is this, the Soviet Union?”
Duckworth later added that her daughters “certainly have a lot of dolls” and said it was “up to the parents to decide how many they have, and not the President of the United States.”
Her Democratic colleague, Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, was even blunter when asked to weigh in on the president’s comments Thursday.
“Children don’t need dolls and presidents don’t need golden jets donated from Qatar,” he said.
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