Donald Trump suggests replacing blue-collar Americans with child laborers

During his latest perplexing rant, Donald Trump claimed blue-collar Americans’ jobs were so easy that they should just be replaced with children.

With the election fast approaching, many voters have been concerned by Trump’s strange behavior. While he has always been one for unhinged conspiracy theories and wild, incoherent rants, many believe his behavior has been even more unsettling lately. First, a rally in Arizona caused #TrumpIsNotWell to trend on X after Trump called Arizonians “Azerasians” and went on a rant about fake news and Hannibal Lecter. He had another head-scratching appearance at a town hall in Pennsylvania, where two people fainted from the heat. After joking about the medical emergencies in the audience, he decided not to speak or answer any questions. Instead, he played his favorite songs for 40 minutes while dancing on stage alone.

To top it all off, he headed to the Economic Club of Chicago, where he insulted and belittled autoworkers and suggested replacing them with child laborers.

Donald Trump talks child labor in off-the-rails interview

Trump spoke to a crowd of Chicago’s business and civic leaders at the Economic Club of Chicago. During the interview, Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait pressed him about his economic plan for America, raising concerns about Trump’s foreign policies and tariff plans. Micklethwait pointed out that estimates suggest Trump’s economic plan will add between $7.5 trillion and $15 trillion to the federal deficit. However, Trump failed to defend his plan, instead going on a tangent about how much he loves tariffs and trying to argue with Micklethwait.

Then, he went on a baseless rant against American auto plant workers. He claimed that autoworkers at international car companies have exceedingly easy jobs, suggesting they simply take parts out of a box and assemble them. According to Trump, they don’t actually build cars. He claimed, “Mercedes-Benz will start building in the United States, and they have a little bit. But do you know what they really are? Assembly, like in South Carolina. But they build everything in Germany, and then they assemble it here.” However, he then went a step further, suggesting that children could replace auto-workers. He concluded, “They don’t build cars. They take ’em out of a box, and they assemble ’em. We could have our child do it.”

For one, blue-collar jobs in America are not so simple that children could do them. Trump’s statement is a gross simplification of autoworkers’ jobs that is very insulting. Second, child labor is illegal, so, again, children couldn’t replace blue-collar workers. It’s especially strange that Trump attacked autoworkers when Michigan, one of the swing states that could determine the outcome of the election, is often considered the Auto Capital of the World and, thus, boasts a very large population of workers in the automobile industry. Insulting the importance of their jobs and suggesting bringing back child labor isn’t likely to go over well with these workers.