Trump Whines About Kids Having Too Many Pencils In Wild Tariffs Rant
Trump is once again saying that kids don’t deserve a lot of toys (or pencils, apparently).

Donald Trump continues to insist that America’s children deserve less.
“I don’t think a beautiful baby girl that’s 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls,” the president said when asked about the prices of goods rising due to his unprecedented tariffs on Chinese imports. “They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.”
“A young lady, a 10-year-old girl, a 9-year-old girl, 15-year-old girl, doesn’t need 37 dolls,” he continued. “She can be very happy with three or four or five.… Let’s not waste a lot of time on a stupid question.”
Trump: "I don't think a beautiful baby girl that's 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls ... they don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five." pic.twitter.com/H9nBN0Eh2q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 4, 2025
The president said something similarly tone deaf less than a week ago.
“[China] made a trillion dollars with Biden, a trillion dollars, even a trillion and one with Biden, selling us stuff,” Trump said, referring to the gargantuan Chinese import market in the United States. “Much of it, we don’t need. Ya know, somebody said, ‘Oh the shelves are gonna be open.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”
This is all part of a tariff normalization campaign from the Trump administration, as they dismiss the legitimate fears that ordinary people have about costs for common goods rising. These asinine comments about pencils and dolls are well beside the point.