MSNBC’s Chris Hayes was taken aback by Donald Trump’s blithe reaction Wednesday to the economic turmoil his own policies have inflicted on the country.
In response to the news that his Tariffs are going to cause shortages and price hikes for children’s toys and other Christmas wish list items this year, Trump dismissed such concerns and effectively told Americans to accept less.
“Oh, the golden toilet guy is now preaching minimalism,” Hayes asked incredulously.
The remark came during his opening segment on Wednesday’s “All In,” where Hayes began by noting “100 days in the Trump presidency, the US economy is now shrinking the first time in years, and it’s all Donald Trump’s fault.”
Hayes admitted “that may sound overly simplistic or unfair, but in this case, it’s just really true, much truer than it usually is with President.” The MSNBC host then proceeded to discuss the proof of that assertion in detail, starting with a detailed explanation of how good the economy was for four years under Joe Biden.
“As wages stayed high and unemployment near record lows, they ended up with this kind of Goldilocks, ‘not too hot, not too cool’ economy, a very difficult trick to pull off. It never went into recession, something so many people on TV kept saying was coming right around the corner, over and over and over. And the upshot of all this was that Joe Biden handed Donald Trump an American economy that had gone through unbelievable turmoil and had emerged as the global growth leader,” Hayes explained.
“All Donald Trump had to do was just not screw it up. But he’s really, really intent on screwing it up. So today we got this big flashing warning sign, which is that the American economy contracted, meaning it shrank the nation’s GDP, all the goods and services we all produced, the total value of the economy could shrank in the first quarter of this year by 310 of a percent,” Hayes continued.
This is because, Hayes went on, “everyone’s scared of higher costs and emptier shelves from the tariffs, okay, but again, that’s not some act of God. It’s not a pandemic. People are behaving that way because Donald Trump has started this wildly destructive trade war, which is likely to continue to cost enormous amounts of growth and jack up prices on all imported goods and possibly pitch the economy fully into recession.”
Hayes then touched on how this may end up affecting Christmas 2025. “The supply chain is taking very long time to materialize. Retailers are even ordering ahead for Christmas season, and toy makers and retailers are now pausing orders the winter holidays. 90% of America’s Christmas goods come from Yes, you guessed it, China, Barbie dolls, things like that, China. And if you’re waiting for Jolly Old Saint Trump to save Christmas, listen to this speech.”
Hayes then played a clip of Donald Trump saying, in part, “Somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be empty.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know. 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.’
“Oh, the golden toilet guy is now preaching minimalism?” Hayes said with a smirk. “Who needs all this stuff really? Imagine if that had been Donald Trump’s 2024, campaign message. ‘You already have too much crap. You spoiled brats. You and your kids are going to have to make do with less, and the less stuff is going to be more expensive.’”
“Every economic expert CEO has been warning him for months this would happen, but he’s not listening to them, because he’s listening to himself and his own experts,” Hayes continued.
There’s a lot more. You can watch the whole commentary below:
The post Chris Hayes Can’t Believe ‘the Golden Toilet Guy’ – Trump – ‘Is Preaching Minimalism’ Amid Tariff Economic Turmoil | Video appeared first on TheWrap.