Trump’s lack of a plan to make child care affordable is ‘insulting to parents,’ CEO says

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump is being criticized after he gave a rambling and incoherent answer in response to a question about how he would make child care more affordable if he is elected to a second term in office.

“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, it’s, couldn’t, you know, it’s something, you have to have it. In this country, you have to have it,” Trump said at an event hosted by the Economic Club of New York on Sept. 5.

He continued: “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.”

Trump seemed to be saying that the tariffs he’s proposing on foreign imports would somehow pay for child care. Aside from that answer not containing a response to a question about specific legislation Trump would advance, economists say that tariffs would in fact raise the cost of living for middle-class families, as the businesses that pay the tariffs would simply pass the increased costs down to consumers.

Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of Moms First — an organization that seeks to push for policy changes to help working mothers — who had asked Trump the question, told CNN she was unsatisfied with his response.

“What he told us was that child care expenses are no big deal. The fact that you’re drowning in debt because of them, sorry but not sorry,” Suajani said. “And he also told us that, ‘No, I don’t have any ideas or proposals or legislation,’ and it’s insulting. And it’s insulting to parents who are constantly having to choose between funding their day care and feeding their kids. And the thing is, if you don’t have a plan to solve child care, you are not fit to be president.”

On Sept. 5, Trump’s vice presidential running mate J.D. Vance weighed in on the subject, saying in a conversation with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk:, “I think one of the things that we can do is make it easier for families to choose whatever model they want, right? … Make it so that maybe Grandma and Grandpa wants to help out a little bit more. Or maybe there’s an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more. If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all the resources that we’re spending in day care.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has worked on tackling child care costs as a member of the Biden administration.

In February, Harris announced that the Department of Health and Human Services had finalized a rule to cap child care costs for low-income families at no more than 7% of income. The rule applies to states that receive Child Care and Development Block Grants, which offer subsidies for low-income families to pay for child care for children under the age of 13.

In her presidential bid, Harris has proposed expanding the child tax credit to $6,000 for newborn children in the United States, which could help offset the cost of child care. 

She also wants to bring back the expanded child tax credit, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021 but which Congress allowed to expire a year later. The expanded credit gave families earning below a certain threshold $3,600 per child under the age of 6 and $3,000 for each child between the ages of 6 and 17.