During a recent segment of The View, co-host Sunny Hostin suggested that former President Donald Trump’s proposed “baby bonus” initiative may carry racial undertones. The policy, which Trump described to reporters as sounding like a “good idea,” would offer $5,000 to American mothers after childbirth in an effort to counter the nation’s declining birthrate.
Although the U.S. saw a 1% increase in births from 2023 to 2024, breaking a downward trend that started in 2007, CDC data indicates that most of the growth came from Hispanic and Asian mothers. Hispanic births rose nearly 4%, and Asian births increased by more than 5%.
On air, Hostin referenced this data and implied that the motivation behind the proposal may not be concern over the overall birthrate, but rather over demographic shifts. “That [1%] increase was with Hispanic mothers and Asian mothers,” she said. “Aha! So, they don’t seem to be concerned about that increase. They seem to be more concerned about a decrease in other populations.”
Co-host Joy Behar pressed Hostin to make her implication more explicit, alluding to a potential concern among some that the birthrate among white Americans is declining. The CDC data shows a 0.37% year-over-year drop in births among white women in 2024.
Hostin hesitated to make a definitive accusation but responded, “Oh, I didn’t say that. You have to read the stats.” Alyssa Farah Griffin, the conservative panelist and a former Trump aide, pushed back: “Have they said that anywhere? I feel like, just to be fair… Have they said that this is to target only white families?”
Behar responded, “It’s in between the lines. They’re not going to say it.”
Criticism of Trump on racial grounds has persisted for decades. In 1989, he took out full-page ads calling for the death penalty following the arrest of the Central Park Five—Black and Latino teens who were later exonerated. This year, a judge rejected Trump’s attempt to have their defamation case against him dismissed.
Further scrutiny stems from Trump’s 2018 reference to certain African nations as “s**thole countries,” and his association with the Proud Boys, a group described by some as white supremacist. Members of that group made up a significant number of arrests following the January 6 Capitol riot.
More recently, Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants—a move the ACLU labeled as racially motivated. “Every attack on birthright citizenship, from the 19th century until now, has been grounded in racism,” the group stated.
Three federal courts have since blocked that order, and the issue is scheduled to go before the Supreme Court in May.
Earlier in the View segment, co-host Whoopi Goldberg expressed her own frustration with the $5,000 baby bonus idea. “I am incredibly insulted by this 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,” Goldberg said. “And $5,000? I don’t know what $5,000 is supposed to do.”
Data from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker indicates the average cost of pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care reached $18,865 in 2022. Even with employer-sponsored health coverage, mothers typically pay $2,854 out-of-pocket.
Trump has supported the idea of financial incentives for childbirth since at least March 2023. At that year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, he declared: “We will support baby bonuses for a new baby boom. How does that sound? That sounds pretty good. I want a baby boom.”
In addition to the baby bonus, the administration has reportedly considered other policies to address falling birthrates. These include reserving 30% of Fulbright scholarships for applicants who are married or have children, and introducing government-funded education about menstrual cycles to help women understand ovulation and fertility.
It remains uncertain which of these proposals, if any, will move forward.
Trump has also recently positioned himself as a supporter of reproductive technology, calling himself the “father of IVF” during a campaign stop in October 2024. In February, he signed an executive order aimed at making in-vitro fertilization more accessible, directing his Domestic Policy team to explore ways to lower costs, which currently average $12,000 to $25,000 per cycle. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration plans to “aggressively” reduce out-of-pocket costs for the procedure.