President Trump dangers alienating folks if he retains speaking about dolls, Marc Brief, who was a high aide to then-Vice President Pence throughout Trump’s first administration, mentioned throughout a Monday look on CNN.
Trump, a billionaire businessman and former actuality TV star, has confronted backlash for repeatedly saying in current days that youngsters can get by with fewer dolls this yr if his sweeping tariff insurance policies drive up residing prices for households.
“I think it’s really damaging messaging,” mentioned Brief, who now co-chairs the conservative Advancing American Freedom, Pence’s coverage and advocacy group. “I think everybody understands he’s very financially wealthy but beginning to tell the American people how many dolls or how many pencils they can have, I think, suggests a little bit of an elitism perspective.”
Trump doubled down on his ideas about dolls — and added his opinion on pencils — throughout an interview at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida that aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
“I don’t think that a beautiful baby girl needs – that’s 11 years old – needs to have 30 dolls,” Trump mentioned. “I think they can have three dolls or four dolls, because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China.”
“I’m just saying they don’t need to have 30 dolls; they can have three. They don’t need to have 250 pencils; they can have five,” he added.
Retailers have been voicing issues for weeks in regards to the influence Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” may have on costs and the provision of products, however the president mentioned final Wednesday that his financial insurance policies would require “a little bit of time” to work out.
He broached the speak of dolls throughout a Cupboard assembly later that day.
“Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” Trump mentioned. “Maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”
Brief praised Trump’s insurance policies on vitality and jobs, however he mentioned the administration ought to shift its messaging on tariffs.
“I think the administration would be better off if they had a more concerted effort to tell the American people — hey, look, we are asking the world to be united here because we’re trying to take on China,” he mentioned.
Brief argued that the administration has not made it clear why the steep tariff hikes have been imposed.
“In some cases, they’ve said it’s to focus on China; in some cases, they’ve said we’re trying to lower trade barriers across the globe; and they’ve talked about Canada and Mexico and European allies as enemies,” he mentioned. “In some cases, it’s been to say we’re trying to address fentanyl, and in some cases, it’s been to say we’re going to get rid of trade deficits across every trading partner we have.”
“And so, the messaging hasn’t really been concerted,” he added. “If you begin getting to the point that people now expect some of these economic disruptions, I think a lot of Americans are going to say well, ‘What is the intended purpose here — why are we being limited to the number of dolls or a number of pencils we can buy?'”
