- President Donald Trump has taken aim at Mattel in new outburst
- The toymaker has said that it doesn’t plan to bring manufacturing back to the US
- Trump has also recently said that girls don’t need to have so many dolls
President Donald Trump has a new target for his tariff policy – toymaker Mattel – and in a video he appears to confuse the company for a country.
President Trump has talked about dolls a bit recently, previously claiming that little girls may have to do with four of five dolls, rather than 20 or 30. This comment came in the context that many dolls are imported from China to the US and, with the imposition of tariffs of 145% on Chinese goods, it could mean that fewer are imported this year. Trump’s adviser, Stephen Miller, reasoned that American parents would pay more for dolls made in America than cheaper Chinese-made ones.
Trump’s comments also seemed to be an acknowledgement that the tariff policy could mean higher prices for American customers, or less choice on the shelves.
Tariffs have been a cornerstone of Trump’s first 100 days back in the Oval Office. A 100 days in which the president says that there have been no mistakes.
Mattel not swayed by Trump tariffs
But now it is toymaker Mattel – famous for making the Barbie doll, among many other lines – in the president’s crosshairs, and he is on film threatening to impose 100% tariffs on the company, which he also refers to as a country.
This beef comes after the chairman and CEO of Mattel, Ynon Kreiz, said in an interview with CNBC that the company was not planning to move production of its toys to the US in response to Trump’s tariff policy. Instead, he said the company will diversify production to other countries or just raise prices for the US market.
Kreiz added that, even without tariffs, the cost of producing toys in the US is too high to keep prices at a similar level for US customers. While a lot of the creative process of designing and developing toys happens in the US, production is done overseas, which helps to keep toys affordable, Kreiz said.
Unsurprisingly, Trump was not happy with Kreiz’s words. In a press conference, as reported by The Independent, he said: “That’s ok. Let him go, and we’ll put a 100% tariff on his toy, and he won’t sell one toy in the United States, and that’s their biggest market.”
Internet responds
Of course, the internet has had its say on Trump’s latest outburst. One user on X (which everyone still calls Twitter) posted: “Yes of course, the country of Mattel. It’s right next to Barbiestan, Nerfania and LEGOvia. Everyone knows that.”
Another posted: “Even if we were in a Barbie world, Mattel still isn’t a country.”
Meanwhile, one user wondered how the tariffs would be paid: “Are they gonna pay the tariffs in Monopoly money?”
