Donald Trump has urged parents to cut back on Christmas presents for their kids this year, as Americans struggle to pay for food, housing, and medical care.
The president’s remarks came as he spoke to steelworkers in Pennsylvania on Tuesday during a rally about “affordability,” which he has dismissed as a “Democrat hoax” and not at all the result of his policies.
Trump, 79, told the crowd of workers who had come to support him, “You can give up certain products.” He inexplicably mentioned “pencils” as an acceptable sacrifice before moving on to children’s toys, saying: “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice, but you don’t need 37 dolls.”
The bizarre advice came as Trump again tried to shrug off the cost-of-living crisis, which is proving an enduring thorn in his side as voters increasingly voice their frustrations.
A Politico–Public First survey found that almost half of Americans are struggling to pay for groceries, utility bills, health care, housing, and transportation, and 55 percent blame Trump.
Trump’s message to parents also jarred with his own finances. Forbes estimates his personal wealth to be $7.3 billion, with his net worth having skyrocketed during this second term, largely thanks to media and crypto ventures.
At the same time, Trump has covered the Oval Office in gilded trinkets and gold-leafed moldings, and regularly boasts about it.
He is also pushing ahead with a vast new ballroom project at the White House, modeled on his Mar-a-Lago property. The 90,000-plus-square-foot hall is set to cost $200–$300 million and has seen the demolition of historic East Wing space that once housed the First Lady’s offices. Trump has said the costs will be covered by private donors.
Trump has previously cited children’s toys to argue that the economic fallout of his policies is no big deal. He used “37 dolls” as a punchline for tariff pain back in the spring, insisting that a “young lady…doesn’t need 37 dolls” and could be “very happy with two or three or four or five.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
