President Donald Trump, celebrating the 100 -day mark of his second term with his cabinet, admitted that his tariffs could mean higher prices for Americans, but seemed to rule out the impact on American families, even in children’s toys.
“You know, someone said: ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open.’ Well, maybe the children have two dolls instead of 30 wrists,” Trump said Wednesday.
“You know, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple more dollars than they would normally do,” the president continued. “But we are not talking about something we have to get out of our way.”
Trump said the Americans did not “need” many of the products imported from China, the second largest economy in the world and the third largest commercial partner in the United States.
The White House Cabinet Deputy Director Stephen Miller, who joined the press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a special informative session on Thursday morning, argued that Americans would be willing to pay more for wrists made by the United States.
“I was pointing to what I think almost all US consumers agree, which is that if they had an option among a father of young children, a choice between a Chinese doll that could be, for example, paint with lead, that it is not as well built as a doll made in the United States, which has a higher environmental and regulatory standard, and that is made to a greater degree of quality and those two products are in the Amazon To the greatest amount to America, you will probably be looking forward to being willing to pay more.
President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, on April 30, 2025, in Washington.
EVAN VUCCI/AP
Trump’s comments on the wrists occurred one day after he delayed economic anxieties in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
“Difficult times are ahead?” ABC News presenter and the senior national correspondent Terry Moran asked the president.
“I don’t think so,” Trump replied. “I think there are great times ahead.”
Trump defended his tariff plan, which includes specific levies of products on steel, aluminum and cars, a 10% basal rate on practically all commercial partners and a $ 145% tariff on China, as necessary to combat trade deficits unfair with other nations.
He also argued that taxes will generate an impulse in manufacturing, since companies will invest to make their products in the United States.
But the launch of Bacheles Tariffs of the Administration erased billions of wealth as the markets fell. Companies continue to warn about possible price increases and the potential shortage of products due to levies. Trump said Wednesday night, during a town hall with Newsnation, who was in no hurry to negotiate commercial agreements.
Trump’s message for Americans who may have concerns about the perspective of higher prices and other economic impacts was that they voted for him, despite his repeated promises in the campaign to reduce prices on day 1 of his administration.
“With the economy, the problem number one for so many people, for almost all. It is one of the main reasons why he is back in this office. And now we have this commercial war with China that, that Moody’s and other analysts say that it will cost US families thousands of dollars per year. So how do you respond to those concerns?” Moran de ABC asked Trump.
“Well, they actually registered for it. And this is what I campaigned,” Trump replied. “I said that they have abused us from other countries at levels that nobody has seen before … I could have left it that way, and at some point, there would have been an implosion as nobody has ever seen. But I said: ‘No, we have to solve it.’ I wanted to do this for many years.”
The White House Cabinet Deputy Director Stephen Miller speaks with the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt during a press conference at the White House in Washington, on May 1, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
The president also repeatedly insisted that China will be more affected in the commercial war.
“You don’t know if China is going to eat it,” Trump told ABC on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, the Department of Commerce reported that the US economy was reduced at an annual rate of 0.3% during the first quarter of 2025.
Trump sought to divert the guilt by fixing the contraction to his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
“This is the Biden stock market, not Trump’s,” he published in his conservative social media site. (In January 2024, when Biden was still president, Trump took credit for the positive values markets and cited the numbers of surveys that showed him before Biden).
Trump even preventively blamed Biden for the second quarter data as well.
“This is Biden,” he said. “And you could even say that the next quarter is a kind of drum because not only happens daily or per hour,” he said during his cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
