Donald Trump's Answer On Childcare Might Make You Change Your Vote

OK, seriously, is the political press just not seeing this? Or is it because every big newspaper has been purchased by a tech billionaire who thinks their taxes are going to get cut?

Donald Trump has always spewed a lot of nonsense — giving non-answers so as not to be pinned down on any actual policy or principle. Since, you know, he doesn’t have any. But lately he’s just been downright incomprehensible! Like… a symptom on House, M.D. incomprehensible!

Video: Donald Trump Implodes Speaking To Black Journalists

Just take a look at Trump’s answer to simple question during an appearance at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday. He was asked if he would commit to prioritizing legislation to keep childcare affordable for working class parents — and if so, what “specific” legislation. His answer? One of the most rambling messes we’ve ever heard. He spewed this inane, rambling mess — this is the entire thing, unedited:

“Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down, and I was, somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so, uh, 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, look, child care is child care is. 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 gonna stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Uh, 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 gonna have — I, I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with, uh, 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, uh, that I just told you about.

We’re gonna be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care, uh, 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 a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question. Thank you.”

Woof. Here it is on video:

Donald Trump’s answer on how he will make childcare more affordable: pic.twitter.com/Hwu7R5aIt6

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 5, 2024

If you fell off somewhere in there because you couldn’t follow it, trust us — there’s nothing wrong with you! He says literally nothing about childcare or legislation and certainly nothing about specific childcare legislation. The most charitable reading of all this is just that he’s saying somehow his economic policies — which seem to be limited to trying once again to put a bunch of tariffs on foreign goods — will magically save the economy and therefore take care of childcare woes. (Which wouldn’t make sense even if raising tariffs was a good idea!)

But that’s the charitable reading. Mostly it’s word salad, in which he gives a vague idea of any of that. It’s like an impressionist painter’s version of a protectionist view. But really he isn’t saying anything, certainly not a plan. He just talks for two minutes without making any point at all.

So the question is… is he capable of making a point?

We get why he might still be doing the non-answer thing, especially because he certainly can’t admit to the childcare legislation he’ll actually enact. Project 2025 clearly lays out plans to kill the Head Start program, which has helped take care of poor children and pregnant women for years. This despite the strong evidence it’s helped to boost educational achievement and fight generational poverty, especially in rural communities. Project 2025 would mean abandoning those communities in what’s known as “child care deserts.” After all, the ultimate goal is to force women to stay at home and take care of the children, so anything that helps women work is seen as evil. So no, Trump doesn’t plan to make childcare more affordable at all, quite the opposite. So he can’t actually answer the question.

But what we mean is, is the truth that he can’t answer the question? We mean… is he not cognitively capable of it? He’s getting more and more rambling these days, to the point he even commented on it, saying in a recent speech he’s doing something he invented called a “weave”:

“I’ll talk about nine different things and they all come back brilliantly together… Friends of mine that are like English professors, they say it’s the most brilliant thing they’ve ever seen.”

We have read this childcare answer over and over. There is no “weave.” There is no brilliance. There is nothing there. And if he doesn’t actually know that… he isn’t even evading anymore. It’s possible he’s gone.