A potential new White House plan that would award a “National Medal of Motherhood” to families with six or more children was doused with a stark reality by CNN data analyst Harry Enten, who made clear how he views the MAGA strategy to make America have more babies again.
“No bueno,” Enten said Tuesday. “In terms of countries that have actually given out medals for motherhood, it’s not exactly the 1927 Yankees, all right,” he added.
While Enten explained to CNN’s Erin Burnett that the birthrate decline in the United States is “pretty gosh darn dramatic,” he said the country wouldn’t be the first to initiate such a plan.
And that’s not necessarily a good thing, the data analyst noted.
“You mentioned Nazi Germany under Hitler, how about the Soviet Union under Stalin? How about Russia, with of course, Vladimir Putin,” Enten told Burnett. “You look at the list of countries that have given out medals to mothers for awards for essentially having kids, these are not the countries you generally want to follow.”
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He added: “So when Trump says that, he wouldn’t exactly be joining very good company, we’ll put it mildly.”
The grim history lesson delivered by Enten came after reports emerged that the Trump administration was exploring ways to persuade Americans to have more children, according to the New York Times. In addition to a so-called motherhood medal, the proposal also includes a $5,000 cash “baby bonus” to new mothers, the report said.
Enten told viewers what polling data shows about why Americans aren’t having more kids.
“The number one reason is they just don’t want to, Erin!” he said, citing a Pew Research poll. “That’s the number one reason – 57%.”