Trump's trade war is crushing Tennessee's whiskey exports

President Donald Trump's trade war is hammering a key industry in one of the states where his support is the strongest.

USA Today reports that Tennessee's whiskey industry is getting slammed by the trade war, as its exports crashed by 30 percent in the fourth quarter last year.

And a new report from Middle Tennessee State University claims that the state's whiskey industry may be in for more pain this year as well.

"The issue is how long we can expect the state’s sluggish performance to continue," the report states. "A real wild card in the deck, is the future of retaliatory tariffs and whether they expand. The bottom line is that 2019 appears ready to provide plenty of obstacles for Tennessee’s exporters."

Lawson Whiting, the CEO of Jack Daniels owner Brown-Forman Corp., said in a recent earnings call that his company was expected to deliver a "strong year of results" -- although he acknowledged that the retaliatory tariffs being placed on American goods was a "large burden."