As Donald Trump’s high tariffs have triggered a massive price hike on various items imported from China including toys, Trump recently lectured on how kids, especially little girls don’t need a huge collection of dolls to play with and they can do just fine with a few toys.
Recently, Trump said to journalists on Air Force One, “A young lady – 10-year-old girl, 9-year-old girl, 15-year-old girl – doesn’t need 37 dolls. She could be very happy with two or three or five.” While it really should not be the President’s concern about how many toys a child should have, Trump’s comments are even more problematic when one looks at the amount of toys Barron Trump had as a kid.
As featured on Entertainment Tonight and reported by Independent, “There were several life-size stuffed animals, a furry rocking lion, a Louis Vuitton ‘soot-case’ that reportedly now retails for nearly $10,000, and a Barron-sized electric toy Mercedes convertible with his name on the license plate that he could drive.”
When one compares this collection of toys for a 4-year-old Barron Trump, the President’s words, “I’m just saying [Americans] don’t need to have 30 dolls, they can have three” show how right New Republic was when it noted “Abundance for me and not for thee.”
just some of barron trump’s toys… including a mini mercedes convertible https://t.co/CsJ8Lp1woy pic.twitter.com/SBxVfstG0o
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) May 5, 2025
At NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump further said, “They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.” He also mentioned that the Chinese ships that are delivering cheap goods to America are “loaded up with stuff, much of which … we don’t need.”
Trump’s comments have naturally resulted in backlash from opposing parties and American citizens. One of the critics commented that Barron Trump definitely had “more than five pencils” when he was a kid as Trump has mentioned five as the upper to the number of pencils that young girls can have.
Criticizing Trump’s comments, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said, “Billionaires like Trump … don’t have a clue about what it means for a working-class family trying to buy presents for the kids or to take care of the basic necessities. It’s an incredible arrogance and ignorance on the part of these people.”
Trump’s former VP Mike Pence also recently attacked the American President regarding his tariff policies as he said that the American citizens are going to get “sticker shock” because of the tariffs that Trump is implementing.
Talking about the dolls and how many a young girl should own, Pence told CNN, “I have two grown daughters, I have three small granddaughters. And look, keeping dolls affordable, keeping our kids’ toys affordable, that really is part of the American dream.”
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Mattel, one of the leading toy making brands in America has also come forward with its opinion on this matter, as the company’s CEO Ynon Kreiz told CNBC that while they will try to keep the toy prices low, some rise in prices are to be expected because of the tariff rates that the company has to pay.
It now remains to be seen how Trump’s tariffs will affect the toy market. If parents indeed stop buying more toys for their children, it will be interesting to see how that will affect the American economy as it mainly thrives on consumerism.
