“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.”

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      6 days 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
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      7 days ago

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

      • Furbag@lemmy.world
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        6 days 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.

  • RotatingParts@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    If (as he says) the economy is doing so well, why would people need to " learn to adjust to a lower standard of living"? Yet MAGA supporters just eat this stuff up without questioning.

    • MuskyMelon@lemmy.worldOP
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      The MAGA supporters are probably thinking the avocado toast eaters need to lower their standards of living, not themselves.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I still find it hilarious that something like avocado toast (and arugula, lol. And Dijon mustard) has ended up as a shorthand for snobbish effete youngsters who probably also drink their tea with a pinky in the air, but are unable to afford housing and healthcare and childcare, because they are just bad at managing their money and blew it all on these luxury items etc…

        I mean, avocados spread on toast. Soooo elitist.

      • nomy@lemmy.zip
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        6 days ago

        Just eat less avocado toast and then you too can have an $80k lifted 4x4 you only use to commute back and forth to work.

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    7 days 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.

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    7 days ago

    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.”

  • yarr@feddit.nl
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    6 days ago

    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
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      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.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    5 days 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.

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    7 days ago

    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.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Yep, I think that’s a factor too. I remember telling some bible-banger the stats on the drop-off in xtianity back in the mid-00s, and he didn’t believe me. I just casually mentioned that about 80% or just under are xtians in America, and dropping. He claimed it was more like 95+%, LOL. I sent him some links, showing how it was trending down by about 1% per year, and he practically broke out in a sweat, visibly, talking about it ever after that.

        He was in a real spiral over xtians not being the majority at some future point.

        Gee, I wonder why that is? No one is going to take his little book club away. The real concern is not having his views being constantly centered every day, with xtians being given special treatment and politicians constantly wearing their xtianity on their sleeves (he called Democrats “Demoncrats” but pretty much all of them are xtian as well and will tell you so at every opportunity) and so on.

        I wonder how people like him are dealing with xtianity now hovering in the low 60s. I suspect that white panic and xtian panic is a driving force for a lot of the worst impulses of conservatism…

    • LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      It’s also because their fathers father voted red, yada yada. They don’t want to break tradition by using facts and science.

  • altphoto@lemmy.today
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    7 days ago

    Migrants = more pencils, more dolls. I assume also more tacos.

    What else? More, sofas, TVs, car repairs, house painting, paintings, house buildings, house cleanings, fruit, vegetables, meats, sweaters, shoes.

    Do you know how to make shoes? Oh we’re screwed!