Trump started his answer by saying he "would do that," then name-dropped his daughter Ivanka and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has talked about child care and introduced legislation he says would improve access.

"It's a very important issue," Trump said. "But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about, that - because - child care is child care ... It's something, you have to have it in this country. You have to have it."

"But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers that I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they're not used to, but they'll get used to it very quickly, and it's not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country," he said.

"Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we're talking about, including child care, that it's going to take care," Trump continued. "We're going to have - I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country."

"We're going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it's - relatively speaking - not very expensive, compared to the kind of numbers we'll be taking in," he said.

"I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I'm talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about," he said.

Exactly how all of this was supposed help working parents find or pay for child care wasn't clear, especially given widespread predictions from economists that Trump's tariffs would actually lead to higher deficits and a weaker economy, as well as higher costs to families who would pay more for imported goods.