‘Maybe kids will have two dolls instead of 30’: Donald Trump defends tariff pain

President Donald Trump on Wednesday admitted that his tariffs might lead to fewer and more expensive products in the United States, stating that American children could end up with “two dolls instead of 30 dolls.” Despite these potential drawbacks, he maintained that China would bear the brunt of the ongoing trade war.

In an effort to ease growing economic concerns, Trump asserted that his tariffs would not trigger a recession. The President’s remarks came shortly after the Commerce Department report revealed that the US economy shrank during the first quarter of the year.

Nonetheless, Trump pinned the blame on his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, telling his Cabinet that China was facing “tremendous difficulty because their factories are not doing business.” He further added that the US 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.”

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President’s remarks came during a defensive morning after the Commerce Department report on GDP was released. Behind the decline was a surge in imports as companies tried to front-run the sweeping tariffs on autos, steel, aluminium and almost every country. And even positive signs of increased domestic consumption indicated that purchases might be occurring before the import taxes lead to price increases.

As the stock market fell on Wednesday morning in response to the GDP report, Trump blamed Biden. “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” Trump posted on his social media site. “Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS.”

Democrats, however, seized on the economic data to argue that Trump’s trade policies are already harming the economy. A top House Democrat, Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state, said that “we’ve only seen the beginning of the dangerous impacts from Trump’s random policies.” She noted that US manufacturers still depend on parts and components from China to assemble final goods and said Trump’s approach to trade reflected a misunderstanding of the investment and certainty that domestic companies need in order to construct more factories and create jobs.

“Chaos and dysfunction are not going to help build investment,” said DelBene, who leads the House Democrats’ congressional campaign efforts. “A strong economy needs stability and certainty. We haven’t seen that.”

(With inputs from Associated Press)