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 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,” he said.
Eventually, Trump seemed to suggest that the tariffs would boost economic growth and government revenue enough to make child care more affordable.
“Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care,” Trump continued. “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.”
Exactly how all of this was supposed help working parents find or pay for child care wasn’t clear, especially given widespread predictions from economists that Trump’s tariffs would actually lead to higher deficits and a weaker economy, as well as higher costs to families who would pay more for imported goods.
And then there’s the question of how seriously Trump and his political allies take the issue.
Aside from a handful of lawmakers like Rubio, Republicans in general have been reluctant to take up child care proposals or to put real dollars behind them. Trump as president never made child care policy a legislative priority.
“As much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in,” Trump said on Thursday.
“We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people,” Trump added ― again, without specifying how this would change child care costs.
Democrats for their part have a well-chronicled history of working on the issue. In 2021 and 2022, President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress had hoped to include what they called a “universal child care” initiative as part of a bigger legislative package they were calling “Build Back Better.”
The initiative’s goal was to use a combination of regulations and new subsidies to cap child care costs at 7% of household income.
The proposal couldn’t get through Congress, in part because its price tag of several hundred billion dollars over 10 years was more than Sen. Joe Manchin, then a Democrat, could stomach. The proposal also attracted criticism, including some from liberals, over its design.
As for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, she has a record of advocacy on child welfare and caregiving. Harris has said in her campaign speeches she intends to make child care policy a priority, and her ads make the same promise, although she has not said exactly what that means or what specific proposal she would endorse.