‘No Crap From China!’ Brutal Internet Fact-Check Shreds Pro-Trump CNN Panelist’s ‘American Girl’ Dolls Argument
The internet skewered CNN guest Batya Ungar-Sargon’s argument that President Donald Trump’s tariffs would give “broke” families the chance to buy their kids “American Girl dolls” like the “rich” – instead of “crap from China” – by pointing out the brand also makes its toys in Shenzhen.
Last week in an Oval Office presser, in a line he has repeated since, Trump acknowledged that his tariffs could result in higher prices for U.S. consumers when it came to toys but that “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”
On Monday’s NewsNight, pro-Trump commentator Ungar-Sargon attempted to defend Trump’s position by arguing that “every rich person” she knew worked under Trump’s rule, with their kids having been bought only “2 or 3 dolls” and “no crap from China” while a “broke person’s house” is littered with “broken toys from the dollar store.”
As host Abby Phillip and co-panelists mocked the line of argument for “shaming people” Ungar-Sargon continued to argue that Trump’s tariffs gave everyone the “opportunity” to make the same decisions as “every rich person is already making.”
She added that it was “offensive” to working people that they won’t be able to afford toys, arguing those people would “love to be able to buy high-quality stuff for their kids.”
The logic was immediately lost on the panel and the host.
Phillip countered: “People who really don’t have a lot of money, here’s what they’re really thinking: They’re not thinking, ‘I want to buy the most expensive doll for my child,’ they’re thinking, ‘I want to buy a doll for my child so that I can also afford food. I can also afford clothes. I can also afford to send them to school.'”
“So the idea that the whole thing is about buying more and more expensive goods, that seems to completely miss the point about what’s happening in terms of people who are actually struggling in this country,” she said.
Ungar-Sargon responded to say that the return of manufacturing to the U.S. would reduce the prices of what are considered expensive goods made domestically.
On the internet, however, users were weighing in to point out another hole in Ungar-Sargon’s line of debate, pointing out that American Girl dolls are actually manufactured in Shenzhen, China.
Rep. Robert Garcia’s (D-CA) legislative director Andrew Bower quipped: “5 seconds of research!”
The dolls were reportedly manufactured in Germany until the company was purchased by Mattel, at which point production moved to China. Mattel, which also manufactures Barbie dolls, announced Monday it would be raising the prices of its products in response to Trump’s tariffs.
Watch above via CNN.
