Former President Donald Trump speaking at Economic Club of New York on September 5, 2024
Donald Trump kicked off his 75-minute address to the New York Economic Club on Thursday by name-checking some of his friends in the financial community, making several questionable claims that went unchecked, and talking about “African Americans’ and Hispanic American jobs.” He closed out the event with a panelist asking him how, if elected, he would help Americans afford child care, a question he ultimately did not answer.
At one point in his early remarks Trump falsely claimed, “the typical American family lost over $28,000 due to rampant, record-setting inflation.” It is a claim he has made before, one debunked by last month by award-winning political commentator Heather Digby Parton: “Nobody knows where he got that amount and the campaign isn’t saying.”
During his speech Trump also vowed to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, if he is elected, before he is inaugurated.
The final question of the day was about the high cost of childcare and how difficult it is for parents to pay for it.
“If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance?” Trump was asked by Reshma Saujani, founder of the nonprofit Girls Who Code and its campaign to help mothers, Moms First.
Trump offered parents no legislation, no ideas, no actual plan to help them pay for child care.
His response (video below) has been widely mocked.
Below is a full transcription of his response:
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 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 we’ll 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 failing nation. So we’ll take care of it.
Digby, the political commentator who debunked Trump’s $28,000 claim, commented, “They applaud this gobbledygook? He sounds like a 4th grader who didn’t read the book.”
“This is a dementia clinic,” remarked SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah. “Corporate media’s failure to have panels on with mental health experts analyzing this gibberish is unforgivable!”
Tim Wise, senior fellow at the African American Policy Forum, remarked: “This isn’t a word salad. It’s a word sewer.”
American Independent senior political reporter Emily C. Singer said, “This is absolute word vomit. He is a f*cking moron. The fact that he is even remotely close to winning this race is an embarrassment to this country.”
“Holy f*cking sh*t,” wrote Justin Kanew, founder of the progressive site The Tennessee Holler, and a former congressional candidate. “Vance’s answer on this was terrible (‘have grandma do it, lower requirements for taking care of kids’) but somehow Trump’s is way way worse.”
Kanew added, “unserious and unprepared. They don’t care about real people’s problems.”
Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said, “Spoiler: He doesn’t actually have a plan to make childcare more affordable. But he does have a plan to establish across-the-board tariffs on imports that will lead to huge price hikes and hurt everyone but the very wealthy.”
Catherine Rampell, the Washington Post op-ed columnist, CNN commentator, and PBS NewsHour special correspondent wrote, “My job is to analyze policy. I can’t even find a complete sentence in this.”
Watch Trump’s remarks below or at this link.
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
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