President Donald Trump on Tuesday bragged about the trade wars he started -- even though reports from around the country indicate that these trade wars are poised to hammer American farmers.
"Tariffs are the greatest!" the president wrote on Twitter. "Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. It’s as simple as that - and everybody’s talking! Remember, we are the 'piggy bank' that’s being robbed. All will be Great!"
Tariffs are the greatest! Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair… https://t.co/iYLwdq5W9g— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1532431790.0
Despite Trump's boasts of "winning" his trade wars with multiple countries, many Trump-supporting farmers across the country have been sounding the alarm that they will be badly hurt by retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans.
Earlier this month, soy farmers in North Dakota told the Bismarck Tribune that they were facing massive losses this year if the president didn't negotiate a deal to reopen Chinese markets to their crops.
“Right now, I am the most scared I’ve ever been as to where the future of farming is going,” said Randy Richards, the Steele County president for the North Dakota Farmers Union.
A Trump-backing soybean farmer in Minnesota, meanwhile, told CNN last month that the president's trade wars were putting his farm in financial jeopardy.
“This isn’t just numbers on a sheet or percentage of trade or dollar value,” Michael Petefish, a Trump-backing farmer, explained. “This is multi-generational American families, your base, that you are now squarely putting into financial peril.”
