WASHINGTON — Donald Trump tripped over a question about him childcare Thursday’s plan when asked if he would prioritize the issue and how he would address it if elected president.
The GOP presidential candidate’s full response struggled to offer a coherent vision or policy on how to address child care needs, as he was busy promoting his proposed tariffs on US imports and emphasizing the revenue they would bring.
During a question-and-answer session at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday, Trump said he is “committed to prioritizing legislation to make childcare affordable” and asked “what legislation” he would support.
“Well, I would do that and we sit down. You know, I was someone — Senator Marco Rubio and my daughter Ivanka were very influential on this. It is a very important matter.
“But when I talk about the numbers that I’m talking about, I think, look, child care is child care, it couldn’t be — you know, there’s something — it should be in this country. You’ve got to have it, but when you’re talking about those numbers, compared to foreign countries paying taxes at levels they’re not used to. It’s , will not prevent them from doing business with us, but they will be taxed heavily when they ship into our country. We will take care of that — I look forward to having no deficits in our country in a fairly short period of time .
“Because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care. But these numbers are small compared to the economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth is also about what the plan is. I just told you we’re going to get trillions of dollars. .
“We’re going to make this an incredible country that takes care of its own people. And then we’re going to worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people. But we’re going to take care of our own people. This is about making America great again.”
After the clip and transcript were shared, Trump’s response went viral, drawing criticism from the campaign of Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris and perplexing political pundits across the ideological spectrum.
Brian Riedl, an economic policy expert at the conservative Manhattan Institute, said, “Somewhere in this incoherent word salad was the claim that the proposed tariffs could both balance the budget and pay for free child care across the country, which is, of course, mathematically absurd. ” he said. and former policy advisor to prominent Republicans. “Trump sounded like a student who skipped exams and made up numbers.”
Harris responded by attacking Trump’s tariffs while highlighting the campaign his suggestions expand child tax credit.
“Billionaire-bought Donald Trump’s plan to make child care more affordable is to impose a $3,900 tax increase on middle-class families,” said Harris campaign spokesman Joseph Costello. referring to estimates from two brain centers On the impact of Trump’s tariff plan. “The American people deserve a President who will actually cut spending, like Vice President Harris’ plan to bring back the $3,600 Child Tax Credit for working families and the expanded $6,000 tax credit for families with newborns.”
Harris’ proposal is less aggressive than that of the Biden White House confirmed for families with children, this includes limiting childcare costs to 7% of income for the middle class, as well as universal preschool. The Harris campaign did not respond when asked if it would pursue those provisions if elected president.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates mocked Trump’s response in an interview Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“If you know what that answer means, you’re a better detective than I am,” Bates said, before citing analyzes by nonpartisan experts that Trump’s tariffs would limit economic growth.
Reshma Saujani, who asked Trump about childcare at the Economic Club of New York, told NBC News after the event that the former president’s response “kind of blew my mind.”
“He basically said child care wasn’t that expensive, or that tariffs would fix it,” said Saujani, who is a board member and said the club invited him to ask Trump questions. “It shows me how out of touch he really is. If you talk to parents, mothers and families on the campaign trail, they talk about childcare and the value of it.”
In her question to Trump, Saujani, founder of Moms First and Girls Who Code, cited statistics showing that child care costs just a few dollars. 122 billion dollars for a year and described it as “one of the most urgent economic problems facing our country”.
He asked him to mention a specific bill that he would introduce to solve the problem.
Trump did not directly answer him. Instead, he talked about the amount of money that would come to the United States through tariffs on foreign countries. He did not reveal how the government plans to cover them, but suggested the amounts could more than cover childcare needs.
For his part, Saujani believes that Trump made a different point, which he called “shocking”: that the cost of child care is not that big of a problem for the United States compared to the amounts involved in collecting tariffs.
Asked to clarify his response, Trump’s spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt responded: “President Trump’s first-term economic policies have lifted families by putting more money in our pockets, while providing expanded access to child care and paid family leave under his Administration. Now, in Kamala Harris’ America, working families struggle to afford basic groceries, diapers, and baby formula for their children. When President Trump returns to the White House, he will make America strong, safe and prosperous again for struggling American families.”