Vance and Trump Answered Questions About Child Care.

When asked if he would support legislation to lower the cost of child care and how he would go about doing it, he responded, “Well, I would do that.”

“And we’re sitting down — you know, I was somebody — we had Senator Marco Rubio and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue,” Mr. Trump went on, alluding to the couple’s prior advocacy for child tax credits and paid family leave. “That’s a really significant matter. However, I believe that when you discuss the kinds of figures I’m referring to, it’s because child care is, well, child care; you know, there’s something, you have to have it. You are required to have it in this country.

“However, when you compare those figures to the kinds of figures I’m referring to, you can see that imposing taxes on foreign countries at levels they’re not accustomed to will make them accustomed to it very quickly. It won’t prevent them from doing business with us, but it will result in a very high tax when they import goods into our nation. It will be taken care of since those figures are so much greater than any other numbers we’re discussing, including child care.

Mr. Trump has long presented himself as the country’s chief economist, a wealthy businessman who moved to politics with the goal of boosting the standard of living for all citizens.

He has been fighting against rising costs for Americans for the past two years, including for housing, food, and yes, child care. He has occasionally mentioned in passing the idea of creating “baby bonuses” for new parents and stated that he would think about raising the child tax credit, though he has not specified how much.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign used Mr. Trump’s meandering response to emphasize one of its main points: that Mr. Trump is so far from the everyday issues that most Americans face that it is unreasonable to expect him to provide solutions.

GOP strategist Liam Donovan said, “He’s always been profoundly discursive, but this one is instructive.” He brought up the Rubio-Ivanka attempt right away, which is the appropriate response. He simply wasn’t interested in or connected with the specifics. Beyond that, he simply switches to a stream of thought on his interests and knowledge.

At a Mesa, Arizona rally just one day prior, on Wednesday, Republican vice presidential contender Senator JD Vance gave a nearly equally perplexing response to a question concerning child care.

Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance agreed that the matter of accessible child care was “such an important one.” However, his first response was that parents ought to ask their grandparents or aunts and uncles for assistance.

Mr. Vance remarked, “Maybe Grandma and Grandpa wants to help out a little bit more.”

However, a lot of parents find it difficult to rely on family support, and a lot of relatives are unable to assist with the children of others. Mr. Vance appeared to recognize this dilemma and then shifted his position to advocate for looser rules governing child-care providers, erroneously asserting that child-care specialists needed to possess “a six-year college degree.”

Mr. Vance asserted, “Paying out the wazoo for day care has made Americans much poorer.” Strengthen the working families. It is imperative that you support those who aspire to pursue these careers full-time.

Mr. Trump’s response did not provide any more information.

The outgoing president appeared to lay forth a plan that his tariffs would bring about such prosperity that the country would be able to pay down its anticipated $1.9 trillion budget deficit and fund other advantages like lower child care costs.