Tarified Farmers

While speaking to the VFW in Kansas City Tuesday, Trump told his followers now to believe what they read and see. So, farmer who voted for Trump, those aren’t food stamps in your wallet or frightening socialism in the heartland. They’re compensation for your sacrificing in MAGAing.

Not only are we “tired of winning,” but there’s so much MAGA all over the place, you’re bound to step in it. America’s farmers stepped in it by voting for Trump. Now, they’re rolling around in it by still supporting him. That’s not fertilizer you smell.

Trump’s trade war will be felt on American farmers in red states who supported him. Tariffs enacted by China in retaliation will hit this Friday while a lot of our trading partners are finding new partners to avoid Trump’s tariffs.

Farmers for Trump are betting the president’s self-indulgent trade war will pay off and the pain that’s coming will be rewarded. They’re placing their bets on a billionaire who campaigned on “buy American,” while his entire product line is made overseas. They may want to take off those MAGA caps and check the labels. Irony is literally sitting on top of their heads.

Tariffs were raised by Bush in 2004 and Obama in 2009. Today, it’s hard to find an economist who believes America won with those actions. Trump isn’t trying to help America’s economy as much as he’s acting out of spite and hubris. I expect Trump and our trading partners to eventually cut a deal that brings us back to our previous tariff rates and the administration will call it a win.

Even Republicans in Congress don’t believe Trump understands how tariffs work or that nobody wins a tariff war. Trump has abused the power to raise tariffs by citing them as a threat to national security as if Canadian cheese poses a threat equal to that of ISIS. A few Republicans are now working on a bill that will redefine “threats to our national security” and limit the president’s power to raise tariffs.

Republicans are campaigning for the midterms on their tax cuts while their states and districts are being hit by tax hikes that are tariffs. This fall around election time, voters will be paying higher prices, losing their farms and businesses while watching Trump greet Vladimir Putin in the White House. Good luck, Republicans.

In the meantime, Trump is giving $12 billion in aid to America’s farmers. I don’t remember that from the campaign trail. I do remember better deals and that Mexico would pay for a wall, not “I’ll bail you out with welfare and you’re paying for the wall.”

Unfortunately for America’s farmers, none of them is the president’s daughter. Ivanka’s product line (which she’s going to discontinue soon), was exempt from the trade war.

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