Trump doubles down on ‘dolls’ remark, says 11-year-olds don’t need 30 dolls

President Donald Trump has defended and expanded on his comments about tariffs and children’s toys, saying in a new interview that an 11-year-old girl doesn’t need more than a few dolls.The remarks, made during a wide-ranging interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, come days after he told his Cabinet that American children might have to settle for fewer toys as a result of his tariff policy.
The NBC interview, taped at Mar-a-Lago and aired Sunday, included a moment where journalist Kristen Welker confronted Trump with his earlier quote: “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls.” When asked whether that meant tariffs would raise prices, Trump pushed back.
“No, I think the tariffs are going to be great for us because it’s going to make us rich,” he said. But when pressed on whether the cost of some dolls would increase, Trump added, “I don’t think a beautiful baby girl needs — that’s 11 years old — needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls.”
When asked if Americans could see empty store shelves, Trump replied, “No, no, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying they don’t need to have 30. They can have three. They don’t need to. They can have five.”
The original comment about children needing only “two dolls” drew widespread attention, with critics saying it revealed the real economic cost of Trump’s trade policies. But Trump appeared undeterred in the NBC interview, linking his reasoning to what he described as a long-standing trade imbalance with China. “Because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China,” he said.
The president also repeated the idea in broader terms: “They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.”
Trump’s remarks are part of a larger defence of his second-term agenda, which he insisted is delivering results. The NBC interview also covered a wide range of topics, including due process rights, the economy, and foreign relations. But the ‘dolls’ comment has once again spotlighted his blunt, and at times divisive, messaging style.
Despite polling that shows growing unease about the impact of tariffs, Trump appeared confident that American families would adapt. “They don’t need to have 30 dolls,” he insisted. “They can have three.”