WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Wednesday that children in the U.S. may just have to live with fewer toys if his trade policy results in store shelves going empty.
“Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House when asked about the prospect of stores nationwide having empty shelves as a result of him ratcheting up tariffs on China.
U.S. businesses already are canceling orders from China and postponing plans for expansions as they brace for the effects of Trump’s trade policy. For weeks, the president has been crashing the global economy by imposing massive import taxes on various countries, only to abruptly alter or suspend some of them. Most countries have been hit with a 10% levy on products, but Trump hit China — a major trading partner with the U.S. — with a whopping 145% tariff.
In 2024, the U.S. imported goods from China totaling nearly $439 billion.
Trump’s new tax on Chinese imports could lead to significant shortages for businesses and consumers. Online retailers like Temu last week announced price hikes and now display “import charges” at checkout to let customers see the effects of tariffs. In some cases, Temu reportedly is displaying costs that are double the original price.
In more signs of economic trouble ahead, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced Wednesday that the first quarter of U.S. economic growth shrank at a 0.3% annual rate. The reasons behind the drop are largely the Trump administration’s own doing, as former HuffPost reporter Jonathan Nicholson spelled out on social media.
Republicans in Congress have struggled to defend Trump’s tariffs, knowing full well they will function as a tax on Americans but not wanting to say as much out of fear of angering the president. They’ve adopted the strange message that, yes, prices are going to skyrocket everywhere, but it’s short-term and will be worth the glory that tariffs will bring.
During his Cabinet secretary meeting, Trump waved off people’s anxieties about an economic slowdown and nonsensically blamed any current and future economic conditions on former President Joe Biden.
“This is Biden,” the president said. “You can even say the next quarter is Biden.”
Asked on Thursday about Trump suggesting that children may just have to get used to having two dolls, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told HuffPost that his comment sounds straight out of the dystopian novel 1984, in which a character and symbol called “Big Brother” constantly surveils citizens.
“I think how many dolls you have is up to the people who buy, not up to the president,” said Paul. “It sounds like the government choosing for you what is a good amount of things to buy.”
The Kentucky senator said he doesn’t care if people have one or four TVs in their houses, because it’s none of his business. He added, “But for the government to tell you shouldn’t have so many TVs, that sounds like Big Brother.”