Stephen Colbert roasted President Trump’s view that American kids might have to “have two dolls instead of 30” because of his sweeping tariffs.
On The Late Show, Colbert blasted Trump’s attempt to defend the economic pain caused by his levies on China—with retailers fearing toy shortages at Christmas due to supply chain disruptions. Trump casually dismissed those concerns as a sacrifice children will just have to make.
“You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. “And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. But, we’re not talking about something that we have to go out of our way.”
Colbert wasn’t buying it.
“Your answer is fewer dolls for our children?” Colbert said.
“What are we going to give our kids? A single Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robot?” he added, referring to the two-player action toy. “He’s just fighting his inner demons!”
“‘Why did dad leave us?’” Colbert said, imitating the lonely toy robot. “‘Was I bad? Is that why he left?’ Sad story. It was kind of a sad story. Never felt sorry for a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em before,” Colbert added.
And Colbert wasn’t the only one swinging.
MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell dialled it up a notch, mocking Trump as “Donny-two-dolls.” He also said Trump “embodies cruelty, not Christianity.”
“Donald Trump cannot hide the cruelty and cannot control the cruelty,” O’Donnell said on Thursday’s The Last Word.
“And that is why, when he was asked about the fact that 80 percent of the toys sold in this country come from China and 90 percent of all Christmas products come from China, Donald Trump couldn’t find words that would express any sympathy for anyone, for any child who might not get that toy that they were dreaming about on Christmas Day because of Donald Trump,” O’Donnell said.
“That’s the sound of someone rich enough to think that 30 dolls under the tree is a common experience for children in America. And that’s a billionaire mean enough to think that everyone should just calm down and follow his advice at how many dolls should be under a Christmas tree.”
“Donny-two-Dolls’ breathtakingly cold statement about the children of America is the clearest thing he has said to Americans and to Trump supporters about how lost he is,” O’Donnell went on. “About how incapable he is of serving the needs of anyone in America, including children, who can now understand how stupid and incompetent their president is, including children who came out to support Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.”
On April 2, the president imposed tariffs on more than 180 countries, triggering the stock market’s worst single-day performance since the COVID pandemic.
His trade war includes tariffs of up to 145 percent on goods from China, with Beijing retaliating by imposing 125 percent levies on American imports. The standoff has not yet been resolved.
The Commerce Department released data on Wednesday morning indicating that the U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.3 percent during the first quarter of the year.
And the International Monetary Fund last week slashed its forecasts for world growth this year and next, warning that Trump’s escalating trade war could yet worsen the outlook.
This year, growth in the U.S. is expected to be 1.8 percent, down from its estimate of 2.7 percent in January.
IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said the global economy is now “being severely tested.”
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