Washington (CNN) – American farmers are running out of patience with President Donald Trump’s trade war with China.
Farmers have long stood behind Trump’s mission to get a better trade deal with Beijing that addresses long-standing issues with what they say are unfair trading practices.
But after weeks of optimistic statements by Trump and members of his administration about how trade talks were progressing, Trump abruptly escalated tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods last week and opened the door to even more — prompting Beijing to hit back Monday by raising the tariff rate on $60 billion of US items.
The escalated tariffs don’t hit agricultural products directly, since most were already facing a 25% tariff imposed by China last year. But the news still sent commodity prices plummeting.
“The President of the United States owes farmers like myself some type of plan of action,” John Wesley Boyd Jr., a soybean farmer in Baskerville, Virginia, told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Monday.
“Farmers were his base. They helped elect this president … and now he’s turning his back on America’s farmers when we need him the most,” he added.
Soybean, corn, and wheat growers have been battling tariffs from China for nearly a year now. Beijing imposed those duties in retaliation to tariffs put on Chinese products by the Trump administration.
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Farmers get impatient with President Trump's trade war: "This can't go on" https://t.co/glh2pPJQKY pic.twitter.com/LjFASNHx9e
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 14, 2019
No problem, Farmers. Trump will see to it that we taxpayers bail you out.
Come to think of it, since farmers pay taxes, they will be paying for their own bailout.
Meanwhile, Trump claims business losses and avoids paying taxes. The bailout won’t come out of his hide.
If you farmers swallowed that MAGA line and voted for him in 2016 — tell me — how’s that working out for you?
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