Vice President JD Vance on Thursday defended President Donald Trump’s statement that children will just have to deal with having fewer dolls as a result of his tariffs by offering parents a wild counterpoint: Those kids could go to war.
“What I’d ask people is not whether they want two dolls or five dolls or 20 dolls for their kids...,” Vance told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum.
“I’d ask American moms and dads ... Would you like to — God forbid, if your country goes to war and your son or daughter is sent off to fight — would you like to know that the weapons that they have are good American-made stuff, not made by a foreign adversary.”
Vance, who also diverted from the dolls talk by arguing that kids’ prescription drugs could become more available in American pharmacies, noted that Trump’s point was about “bringing self-reliance back” to the U.S. economy.
“And that’s not going to happen overnight, and that’s not always going to be easy, Martha,” he said earlier in the program.
Vance’s comments come just one day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that he would reassure a little girl with fewer dolls that they would have a “better life” than their parents and experience “economic freedom” thanks to Trump.
Earlier this week, Mattel — the maker of Barbies and other popular toy lines — announced that it would hike prices on select products in the U.S. due to higher costs linked to Trump’s tariffs.
Social media users on X, formerly Twitter, swiftly clowned Vance over his war talk.