Reshma Saujani, the woman who asked Donald Trump about his plan to address the rising cost of childcare told CNN Friday that she found his answer to the question “insulting.”
Trump addressed the Economic Club of New York on Thursday and was asked by Saujani, founder of the nonprofit organization Girls Who Code, if he would commit “to prioritizing legislation to make childcare affordable.”
The response was a 2 minute word salad in which Trump did not outline any specific legislation but seemed to suggest that tariffs would solve the unrelated issue of childcare cost. Trump said:
“Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down. You know, I was somebody — we had, Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka, was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue.
“But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about — that, because look, child care is child care, couldn’t — you know, there’s something — you have to have it in this country. You have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to. But they’ll get used to it very quickly. And it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us.
“But they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have — I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country.
“Because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care. But those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just — that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers will be taking in.
“We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people. And then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people. But we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about make America great again. We have to do it because right now, we’re a failing nation. So we’ll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question. Thank you.”
Asked about Trump’s response to her question on CNN’s The Lead, Saujani said it was “insulting.”
“What he told us is that childcare expenses are no big deal,” she said. “The fact that you’re drowning in debt because of them, sorry, but not sorry. And he also told us that no, I don’t have any ideas or a proposal or legislation, and it’s insulting.”
“It’s insulting to parents who are constantly having to choose between funding their daycare and feeding their kids,” Saujani continued. “And the thing is, if you don’t have a plan to solve childcare, you are not fit to be president.”
White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates was also baffled by Trump’s response.
“If you have any idea what the hell that answer means, you’re a better detective than I am, because these tariffs that he wants to apply across the board would amount to a $4,000 tax increase on working families,” Bates said in a Friday interview on MSNBC.
The campaign for Vice-President Kamala Harris also responded by slamming Trump’s tariffs while highlighting her proposals to expand the child tax credit.
“Billionaire-bought Donald Trump’s ‘plan’ for making childcare more affordable is to impose a $3,900 tax hike on middle class families,” Harris campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello said.
“The American people deserve a President who will actually cut costs for them, like Vice President Harris’ plan to bring back a $3,600 Child Tax Credit for working families and an expanded $6,000 tax cut for families with newborn children,” he added.
