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Greg Sargent / TNR: Trump's Rants About Young Girls' Dolls Just Got Weirder and Darker
Greg Sargent / TNR - (archived: https://archive.ph/KlRfd ) Trump’s Rants About Young Girls’ Dolls Just Got Weirder and Darker
Who actually wants to work at a Barbie doll factory in America, anyway?
Greg Sargent
May 7, 2025
President Trump is suddenly very taken with visions of Barbie doll factories in America. On three separate occasions, Trump has defended his tariffs by arguing that young American girls don’t need a lot of dolls—in fact, they can make do with fewer. His basic case, as top adviser Stephen Miller elaborated, is that we don’t need imported Chinese toys, because kids are already drowning in them, and most American parents will happily pay more for fewer quality dolls made in America rather than buy cheap and superfluous Chinese ones.
This has been widely analyzed from the consumer side of the equation. As many have noted, Trump—whose own kids were raised in literal golden splendor—is in no position to lecture Americans about accepting scarcity created by his own policies. Indeed, the whole conceit is a tacit admission that the tariffs will hike prices on consumers, which he keeps denying will occur.
But we should also look at Trump’s notion from the labor side. Even if Trump’s tariffs did spur a boom in domestic doll manufacturing, is that something we should want? As it turns out: not really. Many of the jobs this would create are bad ones. And even if it were possible for some fraction of manufacturing jobs along these lines to be decent ones, Trump’s own hostility to unions and government regulations would work against that goal.
Trump’s musings about young girls’ dolls are getting stranger. After floating the thought last week, Trump doubled down in a new interview with NBC News. “I don’t think a beautiful baby girl that’s 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls,” he said. “I think they can have three dolls or four dolls.”
“They don’t need to have 250 pencils,” Trump continued. “They can have five.” Wait, 11-year-olds are babies? And who wants 250 pencils, anyway?
/snip
Who actually wants to work at a Barbie doll factory in America, anyway?
Greg Sargent
May 7, 2025
President Trump is suddenly very taken with visions of Barbie doll factories in America. On three separate occasions, Trump has defended his tariffs by arguing that young American girls don’t need a lot of dolls—in fact, they can make do with fewer. His basic case, as top adviser Stephen Miller elaborated, is that we don’t need imported Chinese toys, because kids are already drowning in them, and most American parents will happily pay more for fewer quality dolls made in America rather than buy cheap and superfluous Chinese ones.
This has been widely analyzed from the consumer side of the equation. As many have noted, Trump—whose own kids were raised in literal golden splendor—is in no position to lecture Americans about accepting scarcity created by his own policies. Indeed, the whole conceit is a tacit admission that the tariffs will hike prices on consumers, which he keeps denying will occur.
But we should also look at Trump’s notion from the labor side. Even if Trump’s tariffs did spur a boom in domestic doll manufacturing, is that something we should want? As it turns out: not really. Many of the jobs this would create are bad ones. And even if it were possible for some fraction of manufacturing jobs along these lines to be decent ones, Trump’s own hostility to unions and government regulations would work against that goal.
Trump’s musings about young girls’ dolls are getting stranger. After floating the thought last week, Trump doubled down in a new interview with NBC News. “I don’t think a beautiful baby girl that’s 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls,” he said. “I think they can have three dolls or four dolls.”
“They don’t need to have 250 pencils,” Trump continued. “They can have five.” Wait, 11-year-olds are babies? And who wants 250 pencils, anyway?
/snip
13 replies
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