5 Times the Trump Team Told Americans To Accept Being Poorer
Trump's comment about how "dolls" will "cost a couple of bucks more" is the latest in a long trend of nationalist conservatives disparaging affordable stuff.
President Donald Trump made headlines this week when he seemed to suggest that American families might be able to afford fewer toys due to his trade policies.
"Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls," Trump said on Wednesday, "and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally."
That was Trump's most direct admission yet about the potential costs of his trade war—which could reduce the average household's income by nearly $3,800 this year, according to the Yale Budget Lab's estimates.
But this was not a run-of-the-mill gaffe or another case of Trump saying the quiet part out loud. If anything, Trump was merely underlining a sentiment that's gained traction on the political right in recent years: that Americans should be forced to pay higher prices for basic goods and household items.
Don't believe me? Here are four other recent incidents in which national conservatives in Trump's orbit admitted as much.
Robert Lighthizer, August 2022
While speaking at the American Economic Forum, Trump's former U.S. Trade Representative dismissed free trade as being rooted in "a philosophy of consumption" that is too "materialistic."
"The best way to fix consumerism is to raise prices," Lighthizer said. "Is consumption really a problem in America?"
That might be easy to say as someone who has spent his career bouncing back and forth between law, politics, and finance—Lighthizer just landed a plush new gig as a "senior advisor" for Citigroup. For many Americans, however, higher prices would mean a material reduction in living standards.
When Lighthizer criticizes "consumerism" and "consumption," he's really just saying that you should be happy with paying more and getting less. Maybe that's true for some people, but that's not something that a president or a presidential appointee should get to decide for you.
Dan Bishop, April 2024
In remarks read into the congressional record, then-Rep. Dan Bishop (R–N.C.) decried the "cheap crap" that Americans were importing from China.
"In just the last 2 years, roughly, Chinese online marketplaces have exploded in size, selling cheap goods at dumping prices into the American market," said Bishop, who is now the deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. "You can go buy sneakers on Temu for $5, and a sweater for $7. Temu reportedly loses $30 per order in a deliberate strategy to flood the U.S. market with cheap crap."
That sounds like a great deal for anyone who needs shoes and a sweater for less than the price of a decent sandwich. People who can afford to pay for better quality, more expensive goods are free to do so, but the idea that the government should force Americans to pay higher prices is elitist and wrong.
If Bishop is right about Temu losing money on every order, then the market should solve this problem on its own. Only the government can get away with doing business that deep in the red.
J.D. Vance, August 2024
Not long after being named Trump's running mate, then-Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio) declared in a campaign speech that "a million cheap, knockoff toasters aren't worth the price of a single American manufacturing job."
That's some bonkers arithmetic, as I wrote in a longer response at the time (which you can find here). Affordable and abundant labor-saving appliances are part of the reason that 21st-century America is the best place to live in the history of the human race.
"A product being cheap in both senses—low cost and low quality—is not in and of itself a problem," writes Kevin Corcoran. "Sometimes, buying something inexpensive and basic is a perfectly sensible option!"
But, again, what Vance was really saying is that you should be poorer.
Ed Gresser, the former assistant U.S. Trade representative who is currently the director of trade and global markets for the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), crunched the numbers and determined that a fully American-made toaster would cost at least $250. That's significantly more expensive than the $30 and $50 toasters that are readily available in American stores today.
Every dollar that you have to spend on a more expensive toaster is a dollar that can't be spent on something else. In Vance's world, that tradeoff is worth it because of patriotism (or because toaster-building jobs are good for your character), but that's a reality where people would feel significantly poorer.
Scott Bessent, March 2025
While speaking to the Economic Club of New York, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared that "access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream."
Again, that might be easy for him to say. Bessent, who was a hedge fund manager before joining the Trump administration, has bought and sold multiple multimillion-dollar homes during his lifetime, as The Wall Street Journal reported. He likely has no problem paying a little extra for home decor.
But what about people who are on an IKEA budget instead? Good luck to them, since the tariffs will hit nearly all of the Swedish retailer's affordable Scandinavian furnishings.
"It's easy to decry cheap goods, or stuff," wrote Reason's Liz Wolfe in response to Bessent's remarks. "People express what they value through their stuff. Stuff is not the essence of the American dream, or the thing that makes life worthwhile, or what we'll be thinking of on our deathbeds, but it is an elemental building block that allows us to pursue all the other things that do give us meaning: That dinner party you hosted at which you were able to fete a friend or get to know a neighbor really did need plates."
As the saying goes: When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. The nationalist conservatives now running the Republican Party have said repeatedly that they believe Americans should have to pay higher prices for sneakers and household goods in order to achieve weird political goals like more toaster factories and textile mills. Now, with Trump's tariffs, they are showing their commitment to that premise.
Trump says his tariffs will mean Americans won't be able to afford as many toys for their kids. That likely won't be where it ends.
