President Trump renewed his criticism of inexpensive Chinese imports, maintaining his stance that American children do not need an excess of toys.
“I don’t think that a beautiful baby girl needs – that’s 11 years old – needs to have 30 dolls,” Trump repeated in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press that aired Sunday. “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.”
Last week, Trump drew attention by suggesting children would be fine with fewer toys. His top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, added that Chinese-made dolls “might have … lead paint in it.”
Trump clarified that he does not foresee product shortages but aims to reduce the trade deficit with China.
“No, I’m not saying that,” he responded when asked about potential shortages. “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.”
The president emphasized that the U.S. should not spend excessively on unnecessary imports, criticizing the longstanding trade imbalance.
In April, Trump increased tariffs on most Chinese goods to 145%, with limited exemptions.
