Why does the Trump administration keep talking about dolls?
President Donald Trump made waves last week after he suggested that children should have fewer toys as a result of his costly tariffs. The comments sparked widespread backlash online, with many social media users noting that Trump famously had a photoshoot with his son Barron Trump’s childhood toys in their New York City penthouse.
“I don’t think that a beautiful baby girl needs – that’s 11 years old – needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable," Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker over the weekend.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a wealthy billionaire, defended Trump’s comments in a Tuesday appearance on Fox News with host Laura Ingraham. Bessent told little girls who would be sad about having fewer dolls that they would have a “better life” for it.
“I would tell that young girl that ‘You will have a better life than your parents, that you and your family, thanks to President Trump, can now be confident again that you will have a better life than your parents...Your family will own a home, you will be able to advance, you will have a good education, you will have economic freedom,’” Bessent said. “That’s what we are advancing.”
Bessent’s comments were immediately roasted by social media users.
“Bessent said he would tell a little girl who wants a doll for Christmas but can’t get one that she should thank President Trump for making the economy better with tariffs,” Trump critic Ron Filipkowski wrote on X.
One user wrote: “Who’s going to explain to the billionaire’s that they’ll have a better life with just one or two private jets instead of being sad about paying taxes like the rest of us?“.
Another user said: “Imagine how many girls would have had better lives if multi-gajillionnaires like Bessent paid a lot more in taxes.But, unlike little girls who like dolls, hedge-fund managers absolutely cannot give up the things they like (which is obscene wealth nobody in the world should have)“.
Trump admitted during his Cabinet meeting last week that prices on some goods will go up.
Trump was quick to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any setbacks while telling his Cabinet that his tariffs meant China was “having tremendous difficulty because their factories are not doing business,” adding that the U.S. did not really need imports from the world’s dominant manufacturer.
“You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open,’” Trump continued, offering a hypothetical. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stories by Lauren Sforza
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