Farmers, who voted for President Donald Trump, are now feeling "helpless, frustrated, and angry" after the administration made cuts to services they rely on, according to the Washington Post.
Vegetable farmers Jacob and Jennifer Thomas have taken more than a 10 percent hit to their bottom line after Trump “abruptly cut $1 billion from two programs that supplied local produce and meat to schools and food banks across the country.”
“The financial insecurity makes my depression worse,” third-generation farmer Jacob Thomas told the Post.
Then, the administration also cut a $8,000 grant, which would have allowed them to build a new greenhouse.
Later, their plans for “a new warehouse and expansion of their farm store are up in the air because of the administration pausing, then unpausing a $750,000 federal agriculture grant,” the Post reports.
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“Just because one program went away, there’s still plenty of time to pivot,” Jacob Thomas said. The outlet claims, “He was trying to remain optimistic” with the sentiment.
All this happened before the tariffs on Canada. Now, the Thomas family is concerned that an order from the Great White North, of 2,000 chrysanthemum cuttings, will be tangled up in the dispute.
“It’s gotten to the point where we don’t talk about [financial issues] in front of our kids,” Jennifer Thomas said.
According to the Post, the Jacob’s Northeast Kansas area is “one of the hardest-hit states for agriculture during Trump’s last trade war.”
Many in the area voted for Trump, but the good feelings are starting to fade, giving way “to a growing sense of helplessness, frustration, and anger,” the Post wrote.
“For every farmer I’ve talked to, this has been earth-shattering and life-changing,” Bryan Zesiger, a winemaker, told the Post. “I don’t know what they were supposed to achieve, but from our perspective, you just hurt a lot of people.”
