Trump Resurges with Criticism of China’s Imports
President Trump has reignited his criticism of China’s low-cost imports, maintaining his view that if American kids “have two dolls, not 30 years old,” they’ll be just fine.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” aired on Sunday, Trump reiterated, “I don’t think that you need a beautiful baby girl at 11 years old — you need to have 30 dolls.”
He noted, “What we were doing in China was incredible, so I think they could have three dolls or four dolls. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars with China.”
Recently, Trump expressed concern that children could be perfectly content even if they had fewer dolls to play with. His top policy advisor, Stephen Miller, brought up that a doll made in China might “have lead paint inside it.”
The president clarified that he does not foresee American shoppers facing empty store shelves. Instead, he emphasized the importance of narrowing the trade gap with China.
“No, I’m not saying that,” he responded when questioned about a potential shortage. “I’m just saying they don’t need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.”
Trump has pointed to a persistent trade imbalance, asserting that “we don’t need junk” because “we don’t need it.”
In April, he notably reduced tariffs on many Chinese imports and secured several exemptions.
