President Donald Trump is repeating his bizarre toy rationing idea as the holiday gifting season is in full swing.
During a speech in Mount Pocono, Pa., Trump was slated to talk about affordability as he continues to face criticism for failing to bring prices down. At one point in his speech, he told Americans that they can “give up” products, including pencils and dolls, for their children to bring down costs.
Trump made those comments while defending his tariffs that experts have warned will increase prices for U.S. consumers.
“If we didn’t have tariffs, you would have no steel. We wouldn’t have one steel mill anywhere in the United States. And that would be really bad for us,” he said.
Moments later, he told Americans they could go without certain products.
“You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils…Every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two. They don’t need that many, but you always need you always need steel,” Trump said.
“You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice. You don’t need 37 dolls,” he added.
Trump faced major backlash for his comments, with many pundits suggesting he was out of touch with Americans.
“Thanks to various corrupt schemes, Trump’s wealth has grown by $3 billion over the last year, while his son’s has increased sixfold.His affordability agenda is for you to stop buying pencils and toys for your kids,” progressive commentator Matt Gertz wrote on X.
Trump critic Ron Filipkowski wrote: “What a brilliant idea for the Republican Party to make Trump their standard bearer around the country for the midterms. I’m sure this will be very helpful to them.”
U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) posted: “Trump needs private jets and an Oval Office covered in gold but your kid only needs one pencil.”
“If prices are down and the economy is great, why is he recommending rationing your children’s pencils? Ballroom for me, two pencils for thee,” one user posted.
Another user wrote: “Was Trump starting off his affordability tour supposed to comfort us by telling us that we all need to just own less things and be okay with it? During the time of year consumers shop the most?”
Trump, a billionaire, offered this advice to Americans concerned about tariffs earlier this year as well.
“I don’t think that a beautiful baby girl needs – that’s 11 years old – needs to have 30 dolls. 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,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker in May.
