this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2025
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“Americans must learn to adjust to a lower standard of living,” he told the crowd before suggesting a specific solution to prices hiked by his tariffs, which he continues to insist are a success. “You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils…You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice.”

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[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I had to laugh at Leavitt fielding a question in which she was asked about the optics of a BILLIONAIRE telling people to buy less gifts for their kids.

[–] yarr@feddit.nl 8 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Trump marched onstage insisting he was ready to make America “affordable again,” a line crafted to evoke Reagan-era economic populism that instead conjured Jimmy Carter calling for personal austerity. Trump declared he had “no higher priority” before launching into his usual misdirection by blaming the rising cost of living on his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Keep blaming Biden! Despite assurances things would be fixed as early as the first day, the USA is still not in that great of a shape. How many people will allow Trump to quit taking accountability? Every day that we get more into a Trump presidency it should be harder and harder to blame your predecessor.

If Biden left this country in such a shambles that even the almighty Trump is unable to right the ship, then why the heck did the Donald say he could?

Our gullible countrymen ate it right up and a good amount continue to do so. Mortgaging your future to own the libs.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

Keep blaming Biden!

They ALL fucking do it. I just saw that stupid bitch Noem start off one of her non-answering "answers" with some bullshit about Biden. Thankfully the piece of shit got immediately called on it.

Q: Why are you breaking the law when it comes to immigration enforcement? A: Well, President Biden....

That stupid SpokesBarbie Karoline does it, too. Same with Mikey Johnson, and on and on.

And I only wish it was confined to Republicans, but it doesn't stop there, sadly. Lots of so called independents, centrists and leftists, do it too.

"Your daughters won't even want dolls once I get through with them."

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 40 points 2 days ago (3 children)

He's talking about dolls again?! I had to check the date... Yup.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 10 points 22 hours ago

He said the stupid pencil thing again, too.

I mean, FFS. Does he have any idea what pencils even cost? And has he been told people are just using a crazy amount of them in school?

This is like the "boomer math" thing with large screen TVs, avocado toast, lattes, and Netflix dialed up to eleven. I just looked on Amazon, and you can buy a box of 576 of them for $35.99. That's about 6 cents a pencil. Enough pencils for one child to use 37 of them per year for ten years and still have some left over.

Does he think people are coming up short on things like health care because they chose to buy more pencils (and dolls) for their kids?

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh, so that wasn't them quoting him from earlier in the year, he's literally rehashing the weird number of dolls thing?

[–] Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's always 37 of them with him.

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[–] Echolynx@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I got the strangest deja vu reading this.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

Dude, me too. I read that quote and knew he talked specifically about pencils and dolls some time ago and thought it was just them adding it in for context on his previous statements about affordability/austerity.

This dude is completely cooked.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm not going to say he's particularly wrong, but a) populists can't get away with telling people to cut back, they've already demanded you trade your morals, freedom, and touch with reality for greed, and b) greed isn't why people are mad, yes consumer goods are getting more expensive, but housing, food, and transportation along with raw materials have become unaffordable.

Panem et circenses. People will cheer for oppression if you ensure their needs are met and they aren't bored. No amount of circuses will replace the bread. And this clown doesn't really have the vigor he used to.

[–] falseWhite@lemmy.world 68 points 2 days ago (4 children)

“Why is it we only take people from s**thole countries? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few?”

Maybe because people from civilised countries can see that America is the real shithole?

But I'm sure bullying and betraying your EU allies and shitting on them is gonna make all the smart people emigrate to the USA.

What a moron. Just unbelievable.

[–] zebidiah@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 days ago

What a moron. Just unbelievable

And yet, elected a SECOND time!

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

"Why can't we get any Swedes?" Because Sweden is functional and we aren't right now. The Norwegians feel the same.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 50 points 2 days ago

His "Let Them Eat Cake" Tour isn't going well? Who woulda thunk?

[–] Raptor_007@lemmy.world 112 points 2 days ago (1 children)

How much could one pencil cost, Michael? 10 dollars?

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 50 points 2 days ago

Here's 20 dollars. Go see a Star War.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 84 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Americans must learn to adjust to a lower standard of living, he told the crowd before suggesting a specific solution to prices hiked by his tariffs, which he continues to insist are a success. “You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils…You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice.”

Trump thinks the economic problem is pencil addicts and spoiled little girls. The guy is a mental ruin.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago

So are all his voters.

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[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Even his devoted were getting bored to tears by them while there was an actual campaign going on. Personally I hope he just keeps doing it for the rest of his life, and the crowds keep getting smaller and smaller.

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can't wait until he's back at four seasons total landscaping again. Those are the venues he belongs in

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

That was Roodles, but yeah.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

Eventually one of the only few ways to make money will be to get paid to attend his rallies.

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[–] SoloCritical@lemmy.world 92 points 2 days ago (8 children)
[–] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not Great Depression level yet; just Severely Depressed now.

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[–] blueworld@piefed.world 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

According to a new POLITICO poll, half of all Americans are finding it difficult to afford food. Even more damaging for Trump, a majority (55%) blames his administration. So Democrats were quick to pounce on his absurd advice. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona posted on X, “Trump needs private jets and an Oval Office covered in gold but your kid only needs one pencil.” 

And because the president is nothing if not predictable, his speech eventually strayed from the economic gaslighting, quickly devolving into angry tangents about alternative energy, immigrants and other odd grievances.

In a particularly baffling moment, Trump attacked the concept of energy storage despite Pennsylvania having recently secured hundreds of jobs with a new zinc battery factory. “They want us to go to batteries!” he jeered. “We don’t have battery content. So let’s go to batteries according to these morons that were in our country.”

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[–] Lasherz12@lemmy.world 81 points 2 days ago (3 children)

This is some how more out of touch than Dr Oz and his charcuterie board shopping trip. Yes, you don't need pencils, the suddenly luxury good in my economy.

[–] Penguin_1024@piefed.zip 33 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Why pencils, literally the cheapest writing utensil available? I could see if it was a good pen/pencil set or a laptop, but a piece of wood with graphite? It's less than a dollar.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I don't even know if it is the cheapest option, and what the quality is, but I just searched Amazon for "pencils bulk", and you can buy 1000 pencils for $51.34 - top of the result list.

That's about a nickel a pencil. Or about $1.89 for 37 pencils, LOL.

People could give up a non-existent habit of buying 10,000 pencils a month and still not make up for the increase in health insurance costs that they are now facing thanks to Republicans who want to throw many of the country into absolute misery...

[–] starik@lemmy.zip 50 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Probably some specific memory Trump has of seeing a cup with “too many pencils, why do you need so many pencils???” 40 years ago. Just like the doll thing. There are more modern, relevant examples of discretionary spending he could have chosen, but his brain is mush from 1985.

[–] EtherWhack@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The '37 dolls' could be from the cabbage patch era.

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[–] Rothe@piefed.social 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I would bet a million dollars that he was looking at a pencil, probably somebody holding one, when he said it.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

Man woman camera person pencil

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[–] Schmuppes@lemmy.today 40 points 2 days ago (1 children)

“They want us to go to batteries!” he jeered. “We don’t have battery content. So let’s go to batteries according to these morons that were in our country.”

What is battery content? Does he mean the raw materials to make batteries?

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 21 points 2 days ago (6 children)

We are in an age of portability, EVERYTHING uses batteries these days.

And if we don't have the raw materials to build batteries, then we need to negotiate equitable trade deals with other nations. That's why we use diplomacy, and don't just impose our will on other nations.

How did we end up up with the most ignorant person in America as our president?

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Probably the shortest answer in this case is: "reality" television.

Pedonald was given that stupid game show to host. People think that reality television is real. People then think he's a bigly important successful bidness man, and kuntry shud b rhun lik a bidness.

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

...what is battery content?

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 points 19 hours ago

The prevailing working theory is that it is the raw materials to make batteries. Remember when he was all concerned about "Rare Earth?"

I mean, I love me some Rare Earth: I Just Want To Celebrate, Im Losing You, Get Ready...great stuff, go listen on Spotify right now! But I don't think that's what he was mumbling about.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

He's very memeable. They don't listen to his speeches they see shit on tic tok or some fascists YouTube or podcast and enjoy that he's mean to libs. They want politics to be a reality TV show and they got their wish.

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Hopefully he forgets the bulletproof glass one day.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The syphilis has completely cooked his brain.

[–] Tryenjer@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Poor syphilis in that brain. 😔

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 2 points 22 hours ago

I hope the syphilis is okay.

[–] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (3 children)

But they're all voting Republican again, because Brown Peepulz!

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[–] devolution@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)
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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"Please sir. Can I have some more?" "More pencils !!?!!".

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[–] rayyy@piefed.social 11 points 2 days ago

So, we just get one gilded gold ballroom with a solid gold toilet now?

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