While President Donald Trump has said that a federal baby bonus “sounds like a good idea,” most of the cohosts on The View disagree. However, cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin defended the proposed $5,000 “baby bonus.”
When introducing the topic on The View, Whoopi Goldberg said she is “incredibly insulted” because “clearly, they 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.” She added that she doesn’t know “what $5,000 is supposed to do.”
Sara Haines described the proposed “baby bonus” policy as “putting a band-aid on a deeper problem.” She went on to explain that this is because there are so many other reasons why people aren’t having kids. “We don’t have paid family leave in this country,” Sara said. “We don’t have subsidized child care.” Sara also addressed the maternal mortality rate in the United States.
Additionally, cohost Sunny Hostin urged people to consider “who’s proposing (the ‘baby bonus’) and why.” She suggested that the Trump administration seems to be specifically concerned with white mothers when talking about the declining birth rate. “They’re saying that the US birth rate is declining,” Sunny said. “However, in 2024 there was a 1% increase in US births, but that increase was with Hispanic mothers and Asian mothers. So they don’t seem to be concerned about that increase. They seem to be more concerned about a decrease in other populations.”
Meanwhile, Alyssa Farah Griffin largely defended the proposed “baby bonus.” She pointed out that for many people who want to have children, cost is a big concern. “The No. 1 concern I hear from young people is that they want to have kids, but they don’t know if they can afford it,” Alyssa said. “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.”
Whoopi acknowledged that $5,000 might “sound like a lot of money,” but it really isn’t “if you can’t pay your rent, if you can’t pay for your after-school programs for your kids.” Multiple times during the discussion, Whoopi urged people to remember “all the stuff [the Trump administration has] cut.” However, Alyssa challenged this assertion with, “Isn’t something better than nothing?” Whoopi responded with, “No, not in this case.”
Alyssa suggested that people are upset by the “baby bonus” proposal because it comes from the Trump administration. “I feel like if Biden proposed this, we’d all be saying it’s groundbreaking,” she argued.
But once again, Whoopi disagreed. “I’m sorry, I don’t like the idea that somebody is saying, ‘I’m gonna pay you to have more kids,’” she said.
