They can’t say they weren’t warned. Trump’s campaign tariff promises should have been all the warning farmers needed that backing Trump would be a very bad, no good choice. But they did it anyway. And now that China has cut off all U.S. agricultural imports as retaliation for Don’s idiotic tariffs, farmers are getting the deep, deep screwing they should have seen coming.
To add insult to injury, Trump and his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, have just offered to bail out their pal, Argentina’s flailing president, Javier Milei, and the country’s agricultural sector, to the tune of $20 billion. Argentine farmers are among the primary beneficiaries of increased trade with China thanks to Trump’s foolish trade war.
So how do U.S. farmers feel about this bailout for Argentina and its agricultural sector while they go belly-up, thanks to Trump’s inanity?
The moves have been rebuked by American agriculture groups whose members have been hurt by Mr. Trump’s trade war with China and are anxiously waiting for economic support.
China stopped buying American agricultural products such as soybeans after Mr. Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese imports. Instead, China has been purchasing soybeans from Brazil and Argentina, where they are now less expensive than U.S. soybeans because of China’s retaliatory tariffs, raising fears across rural America of a looming farm crisis.
The American Soybean Association, which has been lobbying for economic support for farmers, said that the “frustration is overwhelming.” The group pointed out that Argentina just lowered its export taxes so that it could sell even more soybeans to China, further undercutting the U.S. farmers who face high Chinese tariffs.
“U.S. soybean prices are falling; harvest is underway; and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina,” said Caleb Ragland, the president of the American Soybean Association.
Aiding the competition while choking the life out of American farmers. It’s the Donald Trump way. Trump has claimed that he’ll send some of the tariff money to farmers, but that support has yet to materialize.
This should be a no-brainer for Dems. Senator Elizabeth Warren ripped the Argentina subsidy:
“At a time when Americans are struggling to afford groceries, rent, credit card bills, and other debt payments — and with the administration gutting funds that make health care affordable for tens of millions of people here at home — it is deeply troubling that the president intends to use significant emergency funds to inflate the value of a foreign government’s currency and bolster its financial markets,” Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, wrote in a letter to Mr. Bessent.
But I think Senator Warren missed the mark a bit. Her critique was too general. This is an opportunity for Democrats to drive a deep and powerful wedge between Trump and one of his core constituencies: rural voters.
Pound home the fact that Trump is bailing out a failed Argentinian leader and boosting Argentina’s agricultural exports while hanging American farmers out to dry.
This is an underhanded lob, Democrats. Hit it out of the park.
