President Donald Trump “basically admitted” to a major policy blunder in his trade war after sparking outrage among American farmers, argued journalists Greg Sargent and Alex Shephard in a podcast published Thursday in The New Republic.
Trump’s trade war has seen nations fire back at the United States in a number of ways. India, for instance, was hit with a 50% tariff and responded by halting previously planned purchases of American-made weapons. Trump’s ongoing trade feud with China, however, has produced arguably the most impactful response.
China recently announced a full boycott of soybeans from the United States, an announcement that has left farmers enraged and Trump reportedly panicked.
“Not only is this absurd, it’s also crazy that no one in the Trump administration could have seen this coming,” said Shephard, a staff writer at The New Republic.
“Now they’re clearly scrambling. Trump is promising to rub some pennies together from the tariffs that he’s bringing in, but I think this is yet another sign that this trade war is devastating for a lot of people, many of whom are Trump voters.”
Soybeans make up a considerable share of all food products exported from the United States, with soybeans making up 14% of all agricultural exports. China has long been the top buyer of American soybeans, purchasing more than $12.5 billion’s worth in 2024, 50% of all American exports of the crop that year. However, China has not purchased a shipment since May, leaving farmers on the hook for 104 million bushels of soybeans and without their largest customer.
Trump has pledged to use some of the United States’ tariff revenue to offer a temporary lifeline to soybean farmers, but for Sargent, also a staff writer at The New Republic, this plan was a tepid admission of his own policies’ failures.
“This is a real calamity for those farmers. China bought over $12 billion worth of soybeans last year, and this year it’s nothing!” Sargent said.
“And when Trump says he will pay off the farmers with money from tariffs, well, that money was actually collected from importers who passed on higher costs to consumers, who also happen to be Trump voters, or many of them are anyway. He’s basically admitting he’s really screwing his own people here; he’s taking money from some of his own people and he’s going to give it to others to mask the deep failure of his policies.”