Donald Trump Rambles Incoherently When Asked About Reducing Child Care Costs

Donald Trump on Thursday got a question about what he would do as president to make child care more affordable and accessible.

The answer he gave might charitably be described as a rambling non sequitur, or less charitably as policy gibberish.

Either way, Trump did not actually offer a concrete proposal ― or even express much interest in finding one.

The question came during an appearance before the Economic Club of New York. The former president, who is now the Republican presidential nominee for 2024, was there mainly to promote his macroeconomic agenda of tariffs, tax cuts and a rollback of federal regulations.

But after the speech, Trump answered a handful of questions from panelists. The last came from Reshma Saujani, CEO of Girls Who Code.

Saujani said that high child care costs were creating hardships and holding back economic growth, by making it difficult for many working parents ― especially working women ― to stay in the workforce.

Then she asked Trump whether he’d commit to making child care a priority of his administration and, if so, what policies he would pursue.

Trump started his answer by saying he “would do that,” then name-dropped his daughter Ivanka and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has talked about child care and introduced legislation he says would improve access.

“It’s a very important issue,” Trump said. “But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that — because — child care is child care… It’s something, you have to have it in this country. You have to have it.”

Trump then started talking about the higher tariffs he intended to impose on imported goods.

“But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing