A simple question on child care should have elicited a boilerplate response. Instead, it further revealed delusion.

by Inae Oh

Conservative opposition to social safety nets is nothing new. But, as daycare costs continue to soar and the US Surgeon General warns that parents are dangerously overwhelmed, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appear to agree that at least something needs to be done to help address the crisis.

Yet when faced with a simple question on the issue this week, Donald Trump and JD Vance stumbled profoundly, prompting many to wonder whether the Republican ticket had even bothered to think about child care affordability—again, one of the most acute problems facing the US economy—at all.

Just take a look. Here was Trump at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday, rambling through an incomprehensible, half-baked theory that foreign tariffs will solve the problem, easy-peasy—all while dodging the question of specific pieces of legislation he’d push to help make child care more affordable. Meanwhile, economists widely agree that sweeping tariffs would severely hurt world trade.

Donald Trump’s answer on how he will make childcare more affordable: pic.twitter.com/Hwu7R5aIt6
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 5, 2024

Vance managed to fare somewhat better the day before, at least acknowledging real pain points in the crisis, including requirements in some areas of the country that have made it overly burdensome to get a job as a child care worker. But as the Ohio senator has oft proven to do, it was his suggestion that grandparents pitch in that, once again, gave the impression of being wildly out of touch.

“One of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for daycare is to make it so that grandma or grandpa wants to help out a little bit more,” Vance said at a Turning Point Action event in Mesa, Arizona, on Wednesday. “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 daycare.”

The remarks build upon Vance’s recent assertion that the “whole purpose of the postmenopausal female” is to help raise young kids. (Those comments also saw Vance agreeing with an interviewer that an “unadvertised” benefit of marrying into an Indian family was the free labor of grandparents.)

The incoherent responses come amid the Harris-Walz campaign’s efforts to demonstrate how Trump’s return to the White House could hurt American families. But this week, it seemed that all Trump and Vance had to do was open their mouths.