A mother of three was surprised by a generous gift from former president Donald Trump while she was shopping at a local grocery store in Pennsylvania.
Hundreds of people lined up outside Sprankles Neighborhood Market in Kittanning, where Trump greeted shoppers and even gifted one woman some relief for her grocery bill.
"Here, it's going to go down a little bit," Trump said to the shopper.
He is then seen handing the woman, who is identified as a mother of three by his communications team, a $100 bill.
Donald Trump surprised a mom of three with $100 to help her pay her grocery bill during his campaign stop in Pennsylvania. (Margo Martin / Fox News)
"It just went down 100 bucks," Trump said.
"Thank you so much," the woman replied.
"We'll do that for you from the White House, alright?" Trump said as he waved goodbye and thanked everyone for their support.
Trump also supported the business by purchasing a large bag of popcorn.
Former President Donald Trump stopped by a local grocery store on Monday prior to his campaign rally in Pennsylvania. (Margo Martin / Fox News)
"Oh, look, I gotta get some. We gotta get it," Trump smiles while handing over the large bag to his team.
"My mom just got a bag of that actually," a customer tells the former president.
"Is this stuff good?" Trump asked.
"She says it's the best," he responds.
"Is that the best? If it is, I'll be sending, I'll be in Washington D.C., hopefully in the Oval Office, I'll send for popcorn," Trump said.
The former president spoke with the grocery store owner who explained how inflation was affecting his business.
"We've honestly got the best crew in the world," the owner tells Trump.
"So how do you do against the big stores?" Trump asked.
"You know, I'm very proud because every year we went up, except for the last three years because of this inflation. It's exactly what you said, prices are up, but our sales are down so we've had to get super creative on how to use our space," the owner explained.
"Prices go up, yet your sales are down," Trump replied.
"Ya, so it's been brutal. Thankfully, I have a great crew, a great staff, and my family. We work together," the owner added.
Trump is focusing on key swing states as the presidential race enters its final weeks.
A mother of three was surprised by a generous gift from former president Donald Trump while she was shopping at a local grocery store in Pennsylvania.
Hundreds of people lined up outside Sprankles Neighborhood Market in Kittanning, where Trump greeted shoppers and even gifted one woman some relief for her grocery bill.
"Here, it's going to go down a little bit," Trump said to the shopper.
He is then seen handing the woman, who is identified as a mother of three by his communications team, a $100 bill.
Donald Trump surprised a mom of three with $100 to help her pay her grocery bill during his campaign stop in Pennsylvania. (Margo Martin / Fox News)
"It just went down 100 bucks," Trump said.
"Thank you so much," the woman replied.
"We'll do that for you from the White House, alright?" Trump said as he waved goodbye and thanked everyone for their support.
Trump also supported the business by purchasing a large bag of popcorn.
Former President Donald Trump stopped by a local grocery store on Monday prior to his campaign rally in Pennsylvania. (Margo Martin / Fox News)
"Oh, look, I gotta get some. We gotta get it," Trump smiles while handing over the large bag to his team.
"My mom just got a bag of that actually," a customer tells the former president.
"Is this stuff good?" Trump asked.
"She says it's the best," he responds.
"Is that the best? If it is, I'll be sending, I'll be in Washington D.C., hopefully in the Oval Office, I'll send for popcorn," Trump said.
The former president spoke with the grocery store owner who explained how inflation was affecting his business.
"We've honestly got the best crew in the world," the owner tells Trump.
"So how do you do against the big stores?" Trump asked.
"You know, I'm very proud because every year we went up, except for the last three years because of this inflation. It's exactly what you said, prices are up, but our sales are down so we've had to get super creative on how to use our space," the owner explained.
"Prices go up, yet your sales are down," Trump replied.
"Ya, so it's been brutal. Thankfully, I have a great crew, a great staff, and my family. We work together," the owner added.
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Trump is focusing on key swing states as the presidential race enters its final weeks.
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The high cost of caring for children and the elderly has forced women out of the workforce, devastated family finances, and left professional caretakers in low-wage jobs — all while slowing economic growth.
That families are suffering is not up for debate. As the economy emerges as a theme in this presidential election, the Democratic and Republican candidates have sketched out ideas for easing costs that reveal their divergent views about family.
On this topic, the two tickets have one main commonality: Both of the presidential candidates — and their running mates — have, at one point or another, backed an expanded child tax credit.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination last week, has signaled that she plans to build on the ambitions of outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration, which sought to pour billions in taxpayer dollars into making child care and home care for elderly and disabled adults more affordable. She has not etched any of those plans into a formal policy platform. But in a speech earlier this month, she said her vision included raising the child tax credit.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican, has declined to answer questions about how he would make child care more affordable, even though it was an issue he tackled during his own administration. His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has a long history of pushing policies that would encourage Americans to have families, floating ideas like giving parents votes for their children. Just this month, Vance said he wants to raise the child tax credit to $5,000. But Vance has opposed government spending on child care, arguing that many children benefit from having one parent at home as a caretaker.
The candidates’ care agendas could figure prominently into their appeal to suburban women in swing states, a coveted demographic seen as key to victory in November. Women provide two-thirds of unpaid care work — valued at $1 trillion annually — and are disproportionately impacted when families can’t find affordable care for their children or aging parents. And the cost of care is an urgent problem: Childcare prices are rising faster than inflation.
Kamala Harris: Increase the child tax credit
When Harris addressed the Democratic National Convention, she talked first about her own experience with child care. She was raised mostly by a single mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who worked long hours as a breast cancer researcher. Among the people who formed her family’s support network was “Mrs. Shelton, who ran the daycare below us and became a second mother.”
As vice president, Harris worked behind the scenes in Congress on Biden’s proposals to establish national paid family leave, make prekindergarten universal, and invest billions in child care so families wouldn’t pay more than 7% of their income. She announced, too, the administration’s actions to lower copays for families using federal child care vouchers, and to raise wages for Medicaid-funded home health aides. Before that, her track record as a senator included pressing for greater labor rights for domestic workers, including nannies and home health aides who may be vulnerable to exploitation.
This month at a community college in North Carolina, Harris outlined her campaign’s economic agenda, which includes raising the child tax credit to as much as $3,600 and giving families of newborns even more — $6,000 for the child’s first year.
“That is a vital — vital year of critical development of a child, and the costs can really add up, especially for young parents who need to buy diapers and clothes and a car seat and so much else,” she told the audience. Her running mate selection of Tim Walz, who established paid leave and a child tax credit as governor of Minnesota, has also buoyed optimism among supporters.
Donald Trump: Few specifics, but some past support
For voters grappling with the high cost of child care, Trump has offered little in the way of solutions. During the June presidential debate, CNN moderator Jake Tapper twice asked Trump what he would do to lower childcare costs. Both times, he failed to answer, instead pivoting to other topics. His campaign platform is similarly silent. It does tackle the cost of long-term care for the elderly, writing that Republicans would “support unpaid Family Caregivers through Tax Credits and reduced red tape.”
The silence marks a shift from his first campaign, when he pitched paid parental leave, though it was panned by critics because his proposal excluded fathers. When he reached the White House, the former president sought $1 billion for child care, plus a parental leave policy at the urging of his daughter and policy adviser, Ivanka Trump. Congress rejected both proposals, but Trump succeeded in doubling the child tax credit and establishing paid leave for federal employees.
In his 2019 State of the Union address, Trump said he was “proud to be the first president to include in my budget a plan for nationwide paid family leave so that every new parent has the chance to bond with their newborn child.”
This year, there are signs that his administration might not pursue the same agenda, including his selection of Vance as a running mate. In 2021, before he joined the Senate, Vance co-authored an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal opposing a proposal to invest billions in child care to make it more affordable for families. He and his co-author said expanding child care subsidies would lead to “unhappier, unhealthier children” and that having fewer mothers contributing to the economy might be a worthwhile trade-off.
Vance has floated policies that would make it easier for a family to live off of a single income, making it possible for some parents to stay home while their partners work. Along with his embrace of policies he calls pro-family, he has tagged people who do not have or want children as “sociopaths.” He once derided Harris and other rising Democratic stars as “childless cat ladies,” even though Harris has two stepchildren — they call her “Momala” — and no cats.
Even without details about new care policies, Trump believes that families would ultimately get a better deal under his administration.
The Trump-Vance campaign has attacked Harris’ record on the economy and said the Biden administration’s policies have only made things tougher for families, pointing to recent inflation.
“Harris ... has proudly and repeatedly celebrated her role as Joe Biden’s co-pilot on Bidenomics,” said Karoline Leavitt, a campaign spokeswoman. “The basic necessities of food, gas, and housing are less affordable, unemployment is rising, and Kamala doesn’t seem to care.”