The Chris Cuomo Project - Chris Cuomo SLAMS Trump for Telling Struggling Families to Cut Back

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Chris Cuomo responds to Donald Trump’s remark that “maybe a kid can have just two dolls, not 20” and says the message isn’t wrong—it’s just aimed at the wrong people. Instead of telling working families to cut back, Cuomo argues, Trump should be speaking to the billionaires and corporate class who’ve grown wealthier by shifting burden onto everyone else. He breaks down how capitalism without responsibility has hollowed out the middle class, why economic burden is falling on the wrong side of the system, and how Trump’s populist message continues to resonate—despite missing the real target. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Trump just said the smartest thing he's ever said, but he said it to the wrong person. What am I talking about? I'll tell you. Chris Cuomo here. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. So the president said it, and then it was echoed by his top money guy, Scott Bessent. What did he say? Here it is. Somebody said, oh, the shelves are going to be open. Well, maybe the children will have $2 instead of $30, you know?

And maybe the $2 will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. What was his point? The American president is saying, hey, maybe you can do with a little less. Maybe it's time for a little shared sacrifice. Maybe you don't need to have as much as you want to be happy in America. That's his point, right? Resonates with some people.

And then Scott Besant said this. This reporter behind me was quite snarky the other day when President Trump talked about the girl having two dolls. And he said, well, what, President didn't take the question, but he said, what would you tell that girl? I said, I would tell that young girl that you will have a better life than your parents,

that you and your family, thanks to President Trump, can now be confident again that you will have a better life than your parents, which working class Americans had abandoned that idea. Your family will own a home. You will be able to advance. You will have a good education. You will have economic freedom.

That's what we are advancing. Same point, right? You don't have to have 10 dolls. Maybe you have one nice one. You know, used to say that my Italian relatives buy one good jacket. You don't have to have three or four. You just keep wearing the one good one. Why? Quality over quantity. But you know where that doesn't really go? America. You know what goes in America? Whatever the fuck you want it to be. That's what it is here.

You want 10 jackets? Make the money. Buy them. You want cheap shit? Great. You want expensive shit? Great. Your choice. You do you. That's the American experience. That's the American experiment. That's the American dream. And that's why it pisses off

and reeks of privilege to so many to hear Donald Trump say, maybe a kid can have just two dolls, not 20, while his kid is playing with like golden golf balls. Right? That's the disconnect. Now, I see this a completely different way. I'm saying he said the right thing,

but he said it to the wrong person, okay? I get the idea that he's playing with, which is, well, who says that this is the way it has to be, that an American with 50 grand in credit card debt has to have two cars? Okay, I get it. But let's shift the focus. Why does the American have 50 grand in credit card debt? Why? I'll tell you why. Because we have allowed, it's not a must, okay?

It's not a must. It's not a natural right. It's not a God-given right, if there is such a thing, if you believe in God. But it is a choice that we have allowed that some people don't get to make as much as other people. Okay? And this is not just about what the market will bear. So President Trump should be saying, hey, maybe you don't need so many dolls, but not to the working man and women, not to the majority, but to the minority, to the super wealthy. Maybe you don't need to make $345 for every $1 that somebody else makes. That's who you say that to. Not to the people who are just making it, but to the people who can't even count what

they have. Maybe you don't need 10 vintage Porsches. Maybe you don't need your own plane. Maybe you don't need four homes. Maybe you don't have to take time and call someone else to figure out how many accounts you have at a brokerage firm. That's what he should be saying. Now, let's talk about why he's saying it the way he is. Why is it that even I sitting here raised by a pathologically modest man,

Mario Cuomo didn't like money? He was raised in a generation that it made sense to him that you shouldn't lend money for a big VIG. It's just how he was. If you needed money, he'd give it to you if he had it. He didn't wanna talk about a loan. If you paid it back, you gave it back, but you don't wanna talk about it.

There was something bothersome to him about it. If you wanted him to speak somewhere, ask him, do not offer him money. It almost guaranteed that he'd be like, I don't know. That's just the way he was. It's the way he was raised. You could say it was Catholic. You could say it was being a depression baby. I don't know what it was.

I don't know, but that's how he was, okay? Everything that you wanted to buy cost too much. Everything, you don't need it. You don't need it. You don't need it. You don't need it. What is this? How much? For what? You don't need it. Move to Queens. Go live in Queens. It's much better there. No, I want to be here. I want to have it. What do you need that for? I don't know. Maybe it was because he was scared. Maybe it was immigrant mentality. I don't know. But

that's how he was. Okay? So I get it. I get it. The idea of maybe you don't know, but that's how he was. Okay, so I get it. I get it the idea of maybe you don't need to do with so much Maybe you should put more money away. Maybe you should save more. I was raised by that guy. Okay, my mother is that way today 93 years old how much is that? Why what is what I know let's only buy two just get two avocados. You don't need that there dad Mom making guacamole. No, it's okay. How much do you need to eat? Okay, I get the mentality.

It raised me, okay? Somehow it skipped a generation because my kids, my family, they don't give a, they're like afraid of no price tag. They have no sticker shock. It's impossible. Here's my point. Why is it bothersome to tell people

how much they can have on the top end, but not in the majority? Why did Donald Trump feel so comfortable, so nonchalant, so casual with the suggestion that maybe the working man and woman, you know, doesn't have to do so much for their kids. Do less, buy more, buy American, pay more, have less. We can do with less, that's patriotism.

And why is it somewhat offensive when I say, well, maybe you don't need three Porsches. This is something that's uniquely American. And I have seen it when it comes to tax policy. When you tell people that they're given tax cuts to the top, even if they are in a part that's going to get less or even no tax cut because of it, you would be surprised how many people are in favor of the tax cut because aspirationally they think they're going to be there someday.

Hopefully they're right if that's what they want. Well, I'm going to be in that bracket someday, so I don't want you to reduce the value of it because I want to get there. You're killing my aspiration. So maybe that is the psychology behind what the president is saying and why it's acceptable. But what I thought was remarkable was how much pushback he got to that statement and how best it got pushback that,

hey, hey, maybe things are starting to change in America. Maybe the many are starting to realize that they have more in common than the politics of division have led them to believe for the last 20 years. Where instead of dividing over issues that only affect the few, or shouldn't really be political at all, like whether the woman gets to control her body or not,

or trans athletes, or making cakes for gay couples, or all these other discreet niche issues. And maybe we're starting to refocus on common concerns that affect the collective, the many over the few. Remember, culture wars only work for the parties. They are a distraction from dealing with these bigger issues. Let's get them fighting about this shit so they'll side with one of us, even if our policies are against their interests.

Why do you think it's so frustrating for black Americans that they keep voting with one party all the time, but it doesn't seem like they get much out of it? Yeah, but the others are racist. All right. So if that's the dividing line, I'll go with the non-racist. Even if the policies don't wind up in euring to your benefit. It's interesting, right?

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Let's get after it. So Trump defaults to saying, well, maybe you who are worried about how much things are going to cost should buy less. But he does not intuitively apply that restriction, that restraint, that regulation on the rich. Why? Think about it and don't dismiss it with something trivial and pejorative. Well, it's because he's a rich guy

and he just wants people like him to have as much as they want. All right, maybe, maybe, but maybe it's something else. Because again, I've seen this before with tax policy. I've seen middle-class people, and again, I hate middle-class, but I don't know what to do. I feel the same way about other demographic things

that we talk about, where I'm like, oh, it's so demeaning to come, but that's the way, that's the phrase we use. I don't know what to tell you. I've seen it with tax policy, where the middle-class are in favor of tax cuts for the top because they wanna be there someday. Not everybody, but I've seen it many times.

I remember once sitting next to somebody and saying, who doesn't want a tax cut? Everybody wants to pay less taxes. And this co-anchor I had who was well-off said, well, I'm OK paying more taxes. But that's a pretty elite feeling, right? That I'm OK paying more taxes. Nobody wants to pay more taxes. But that's a pretty, that's a pretty elite pro, you know, feeling, right? That I'm okay paying more taxes. Nobody wants to pay more taxes. Two reasons. One, you want your money. And two, you don't trust what the government is doing with it. The second one, I think,

matters more than the first, frankly, in terms of a virtue. So let's examine this. This is really important. Why is it okay? Cause this is what I think needs to change. This is the thing. This is it. This is it. The sine qua non, that without this, nothing. We have to shift the idea of doing less

from the many to the few. The billionaires, the corporate class, are the ones who need to do with less, not the majority. If the majority gets more because the few at the top get less, I'm okay with that trade more so than the trade we're making right now, which is that the many have less so that the few can have more. If it's okay for us to make that bet in the name of capitalism, why is it not okay to make the other bet?

Why? Explain it to me. As someone who worked in finance after studying economics at an Ivy League institution, why is it capitalism to allow the few to have as much as possible, even if that compromises the ability of the many to have enough? That's capitalism. But it is not capitalism to have the few make less

so the many can have more. That's socialism. Really? Huh. I guess it would make sense if the few were not benefiting at the expense of the many, that's the missing piece in the puzzle, is that the corporate class,

and why do I keep calling them that? Here's why, maybe it's self-serving. I am rich. I am at the top tax bracket. But I am an employee. I get paid an income, a salary. I don't make money off shares of deals that get taxed differently and carried forward

and hidden and flipped and rolled into and all these other clever devices that apply to the few and not the many. That's what I mean by corporate class. I understand that when they say we may have to tax the top more to allow for a real middle class tax cut for the majority, a tax cut for the majority, that means me. And if that's where it goes, if that's where it, what it does, I get it.

I get it. I get it. I'm blessed. I'll still be blessed. I'll still be doing better than most. Okay, I get it. That's different than what I'm talking about here. We have a system that rewards the few at the expense of the many.

And I don't know why that's okay as capitalism and any adjustment to it is anathema to capitalism. And here's why. Show the graph of the 60s between CEO salaries and workers. Okay? We had this same complaint then. All right. Right. Archie Bunker sang that song at the beginning of All in the Family.

Mr. We could use a man like Hoi, but Hoover again didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight. What were they singing about? This. That in the good old days you were allowed on one job to raise a family. So what fucking changed? What changed? Look at the graph in the 60s and look at it today. That's what changed. There was a rebalancing of who wins and how much.

Why? Because choices were made that benefited the few over the many. It wasn't socialism to capitalism. It was always capitalism. Support comes from Soul. Soul is a wellness brand. What does that mean? They think about what goes into what they make. And they believe feeling good should be fun, easy, and safe. Sol specializes in delicious hemp-derived THC and CBD products designed to boost your mood and help you unwind.

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Capitalism without responsibility is mere greed. And that's what we have become ruled by. And I am not fucking Bernie Sanders or AOC. I do not believe the government should give you a living wage and just dole out all the money that we should have all the rich pay 99% and it just gets given to everybody else. That is not what I'm saying. I'm saying that we have created an uneven playing field. We allowed these people, after China got into the WTO, 2001,

to leave, go to a place where they pay their people nothing because they don't care about their people, and there's no regulation, they don't give a shit about the environment, they don't care about anything but more, right? Not that that makes them that different from us and They then sold all the shit they were making there back to us and it's not just sneakers It's not just t-shirts

It's expensive things it's cars It's software, it's hardware, it's devices, it's things we need, it's things you've gotta be smart to make and design. Those jobs don't belong somewhere else if you're gonna be selling all the shit to us. Not if the companies are not from that country. If you're from here and you go there

and then sell it back here and don't make it with your own people. I don't know that it has to be that way. And if you are from somewhere else and make it with your own people, but want to sell it here, are from somewhere else and make it with your own people but want to sell it here? Well then why don't we get to create the rules?

This is the signature issue of our generation and the president is hovering right above it. His problem is that he doesn't know what to do about it, because he's not a strategist and a tactician and a manager. That's why his businesses have failed so many times over. He's a salesman and he understands where people are and he's a good communicator of grievance, but he's hovering right over the issue. Why does it have to be that some have nine Ferraris and we're being told that you don't need

nine pairs of cheap sneakers, only get two? Why aren't you delivering that message to them? Because what would happen then? What is the virtue of what he's asking people to do? Well, you're gonna stop buying less shit from them. Okay. And we're going to buy more stuff from the people who make it here, right? Yeah.

Okay. All right. So who are we benefiting? Oh, the people who make it here. Oh, so we're still benefiting the corporate class, right? It's just where we're sending our money. Why? Why not make it where the people who are making the things

give more of the money making it to the people who are actually making the stuff? Why? Why can't you be worth 50 million instead of 150 million? Why? Why is it capitalism for you to be worth 150 million and me have 50 grand in debt while I'm working for you making you the 150 million but it is not capitalism and wrong for me to have only 1500 in,500 in debt and savings, and you'll be worth $50 million.

Why is that anathema to capitalism? But the other way is just fine. Capitalism without any responsibility to the people making you money and the whole is just greed. There's a reason Jesus spoke against it. Okay? There's a reason it was inculcated as a value. Trump is right over it. He's just suggesting the right thing to the wrong person. It is not to be said to you, who is struggling, who has two paychecks or one medical emergency from being in a crisis, that you need to find a way to do with a little bit less.

It'll be better for all of us. Tell the top. How can it be in America that the fastest growing socioeconomic group is billionaires? How? When more and more people are going underwater with debt, how is that okay? How is that what we want America to be about? I look, this is the signature issue of our time. And I'm not saying that America's gotta go socialist. That's not what I'm saying. Explain to me how we went from where we were

in the sixties to now. We picked winners and losers. That's what we did. So why can't we just choose differently without it being anathema to our economic system? If you want access to the American consumer market, and you do, why shouldn't you have to give to get? And what are the answers? What are, I don't know, but this is the discussion to have. I leave the answers and the expertise to the comics on podcasts because they seem to know everything.

So you should follow them and believe as they do because they saw another podcast where they got their idea. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what the answers are, but I know what the right questions are. And this is the issue. How we share benefit and burden in our economy. That is the signature issue,

and Trump is hovering right over it. He was right to say more things that are of value to the American people should be made in America, and people should be used here to make things that are being sold by American companies all over the world, that they should have more of a responsibility to this country.

I do not think that that is wrong. I think everything about it is right. How much, in what ways, what is tariffs, what is taxation, what is regulation? I don't know. That is for the people who want to lead to debate. And we should be talking about that, not chicks with dicks, not transgender athletes, not reproductive rights, not baking cakes, not, you know, who's a bad hombre. All these other fringe divisive issues. They are all distractions because these guys wanna get elected and keep power without having to deal with this.

And this is the issue This is what affects the most This is what affects the many in the most ways The president asked the right question. He just asked it to the wrong person It was the right suggestion but to the wrong person. Why do you have to have so much? He should not be asking that to the many. He should be asking it of the few. I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you very much for joining me on the Chris Cuomo Project. What do you think about what I'm talking about? Give me your questions and comments. I'm doing this job reporting to you, but also for you.

So I want to be of value. Let me know how I can do that. Thank you for checking out the sub stack. I'm going to be having interviews there with people. If you subscribe, you can comment and get feedback from them and access to them and me. All right. And of course, News Nation, thank you for giving us a chance. It's where right and left come to be reasonable. And I'll see you there at 8P and 11P every weekday night. My friends, brothers and sisters, the problems are real. So let's get after it.