Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

'The View' Audience Horrified After Cohost Defends Trump's $5k 'Baby Bonus' To Boost Birth Rates

Screenshots of Whoopi Goldberg and Alyssa Farah Griffin
ABC

During a chat about Trump's plan to give women $5,000 after they give birth, Alyssa Farah Griffin surprised her The View cohosts and the audience by defending the move.

Things took a turn on The View during a chat about President Donald Trump's proposed "baby bonus" of $5,000 for women to boost birth rates after co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin—a former Trump administration appointee who bowed out in 2020 and condemned his supporters' attack on the U.S. Capitol—defended the move.

Earlier, The New York Timesreported that the Trump administration "has been hearing out a chorus of ideas in recent weeks for persuading Americans to get married and have more children" and that one proposal shared with aides "would give a $5,000 cash 'baby bonus' to every American mother after delivery."


Moderator Whoopi Goldberg said she is "incredibly insulted" by the White House's proposal, saying members of the Trump administration "don't know how women's bodies work, and they don't know what it costs to raise a child or just have a child."

You can watch what happened next in the video below.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Goldberg's remark prompted co-host Sara Haines to call efforts to boost birth rates “like putting a band-aid on a deeper problem,” pointing to the lack of paid family leave, subsidized childcare, and the U.S.'s staggering maternal mortality rate—“55% higher than the second place.”

Haines noted the first year of raising a child costs “a conservative estimate” of $16,000 and added, “It’s just not touching the surface.”

And when co-host Joy Behar proposed taxing billionaires to fund social services rather than pushing women to have more children, Griffin defended Trump, noting he “has actually floated” that idea himself:

“I actually generally support this policy, that may surprise you guys. The number one concern I hear from young people is that they want to have kids, but they don’t know if they can afford it."
"And we could argue over whether or not it’s enough, the $5,000, but both Italy and France do this. You get a one-time payment when you have a child.”

Griffin also claimed that “out-of-pocket costs for delivering a child” were under $5,000, suggesting any leftover funds could be placed in a savings account for the child to access at age 18, adding:

“We also have policies like this in place. We have the child tax credit, which gives you a tax credit back for the number of children you have, and the earned income tax credit."
"Because of this idea that our social safety net—so Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid—rely on the younger population keeping up with the older population so they can pay into it.”

Griffin supported the baby bonus plan with the caveat that it should include all new parents, not just birth mothers, but Goldberg rejected it, criticizing the administration for cutting women’s benefits and arguing that "$5,000 sounds like a lot," but it doesn’t help if families can’t meet basic needs.

When Griffin asked, “Isn’t something better than nothing?” Goldberg shot back with an emphatic "no, not in this case."

And after Griffin said "if Biden proposed this, we’d all be saying it’s groundbreaking," Goldberg shut her down:

“No. I’m sorry, I don’t like the idea that somebody is saying, ‘I’m gonna pay you to have more kids.’”
“Let me just tell you this. $1 billion in funding for schools and food banks to buy food was cut. Withdrew funding for investigating child sexual abuse and internet crimes against children—cut. Fired the entire staff running a program to help low-income households pay their heating and cooling bills.”
“My point is, it seems to me that everything this administration seems to be doing is telling people not to have children. Why not make sure that kids that we already have have a shot at good schooling? Why not? If you want people to have children, you have to not scare them by cutting all these programs that they may need.”

Others also criticized Griffin and the Trump administration's proposal.


The news about the proposed "baby bonus" comes at the same time as a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed the U.S. fertility rate last year rose slightly to 54.6 births per 1,000 women of reproductive age—a modest increase of less than 1% from the record low in 2023 and still significantly below rates seen in previous years.

Trump called the $5,000 baby bonus proposal a “good idea,” offering his support, while House Speaker Mike Johnson labeled it “creative.” But on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are more focused on cutting social programs like Medicaid and food assistance—even as they seek to extend Trump’s previous tax cuts, which had doubled the child tax credit to $2,000

Some Trump administration officials are already advancing policies aimed at boosting family growth. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a father of nine, issued a memo prioritizing transportation funding for areas with higher birth and marriage rates—potentially shifting resources from urban transit to rural highways.

Meanwhile, the White House is expected to release a report by mid-May outlining proposals to make IVF more accessible and affordable, fulfilling a campaign promise to lower costs despite few specifics so far.

More from People/donald-trump

bride and groom cutting wedding cake
Wedding Dreamz on Unsplash

People Who Smashed Wedding Cake In Their Spouse's Face Reveal How Their Relationship Is Going Now

According to The Knot wedding resource magazine and website, smashing cake into the face of a spouse after tying the knot is a tradition tied to medieval England. To celebrate the marriage, the bride would toss a piece of piece of cake over her shoulder for good luck.

This evolved into newlyweds feeding a piece of cake to one another, then taking frosting or a small bit of cake and rubbing it gently onto each other's faces—usually the cheek or tip of the nose.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of U.S. Army veteran who criticized Donald Trump
@btnewsroom/TikTok

U.S. Army Vet Goes Viral With Blistering Speech Ripping Trump For Deploying Troops To L.A.

A U.S. Army veteran went viral after she spoke out to encourage other current and former military members to publicly condemn President Donald Trump for using them as "pawns" to suit his own ends after he deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles amid ongoing protests against his administration's immigration raids.

Trump has activated over 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines, despite opposition from city and state leaders. He has painted a bleak picture of Los Angeles—claims that Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom say are wildly exaggerated.

Keep ReadingShow less
Barack and Michelle Obama
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The Obamas Just Shared A Rare Family Photo With Their Adult Daughters To Celebrate Sasha's Birthday

Former President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama warmed hearts when they shared the same photo to their respective social media accounts, showing them with their adult daughters, Sasha and Malia, to commemorate Sasha's 24th birthday.

Sasha Obama was born in June 2001, nearly eight years before the family moved into the White House at the start of her father's first term in January 2009. She and her older sister, Malia, now 26, spent their formative years in the presidential residence, growing up there throughout their father’s two terms, until the family departed in 2017.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump; Joe Biden
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images; Scott Olson/Getty Images

Trump Dragged After Hilariously Flubbing Insult About Biden's Mental Acuity

The term malaphor means when two or more colloquial phrases or idioms get confused and combined to create something nonsensical. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), malaphors are a common symptom of frontotemporal dementia or other cognitive impairments.

So when a person seeks to accuse someone of being unintelligent, their use of malaphors is ironic and possibly very telling—narcissists will always accuse others of their own faults and failures.

Keep ReadingShow less
Christy Walton; Donald Trump
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

MAGA Now Calling For Walmart Boycott After Heiress Funds Ad Promoting Anti-Trump Protests

MAGA fans are boycotting Walmart after Christy Walton, one of the retail giant's heirs, took out a full-page ad in The New York Times promoting the “No Kings” protests planned against President Donald Trump's military parade.

Walton, who is worth an estimated $19.3 billion and ranks among the wealthiest women in the U.S., urged critics of Trump to "mobilize" against the parade—echoing a similar message she shared in a New York Times ad back in March.

Keep ReadingShow less