Trump’s trade policies were a disaster for farmers

U.S. government checks constituted 40% of farmers' income in 2020, per USDA https://t.co/ZFnN5lqyr0
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) January 4, 2021

I’ve been told that buying votes is illegal. https://t.co/p78BIADAwP
— Resist. (@CasualTim) January 4, 2021

38% of South Dakota's budget is from federal aid.

$46 billion in aid was delivered to farmers under Trump.

So, please do tell us more about this socialism you dislike so much. https://t.co/ulqvq09Mc0
— Jennifer Hayden (@Scout_Finch) January 4, 2021

.@chrislhayes on Trump’s "massive payout" to farmers and why Democrats and the press should never, ever, ever, ever worry or take Republicans seriously when they complain about giving people “free stuff.” https://t.co/PPEIwzYU5q
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) October 24, 2020

91 percent of money diverted from consumers to farmers by Trump's tariffs system went to counties that voted Trump. On average, the amount disbursed per person in blue counties was $224. In red, $756. https://t.co/DiASgdEthl pic.twitter.com/BEYsphjvOx
— Philip Bump (@pbump) October 21, 2020

I wonder what they would call this if farmers were predominantly Black and lived in blue states. https://t.co/9Xo0zTUehM pic.twitter.com/NgL2squftC
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) October 20, 2020

Key line in this WSJ story: Mr. Trump’s USDA projects it will pay a record $37.2 billion this (election) year to farmers and ranchers, with the administration in mid-September pledging an additional $14 billion in aid. https://t.co/h3J8AZygTL
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) October 19, 2020

Trump shovels money at farmers to make up for his trade disasters

Not for nothing does Trump talk about the "great patriot farmers" –> Trump’s farmer bailout has given $21 billion to red counties and $2.1 billion to blue ones https://t.co/RKtXGuBJG9
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) October 20, 2020

Remember Obamaphones? It was part of a whole racist theory that poor black people liked Obama because he gave them free stuff from the government!
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 20, 2020

A stimulus deal might be stymied, but Trump is funneling record subsidies to his farmers.

Payments this year project to top $40 billion.

There was a late push to help North Carolina tobacco farmers & Sonny Perdue was hit with a Hatch Act violation.https://t.co/eHoihGH6WZ
— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) October 12, 2020

Should read: Trump attempts to buy farmers votes as his poll numbers decline. https://t.co/KSZQssJjpL
— James (@jcmarbury) September 18, 2020

Trump then falsely claimed that the $28 billion in tariff money given to farmers was paid by China. That's money paid by Americans. (American importers make the actual tariff payments, and study after study has shown Americans are bearing the overwhelming portion of the cost.)
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 24, 2020

Trump just claimed farmers benefit "more than anybody else" from the stock market. He's dead wrong. https://t.co/rAbOqEvk07
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) August 11, 2020

Farmers’ hopes for respite from Trump-era struggles fade amid pandemic https://t.co/C27IwyJ4vQ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 12, 2020

“Imagine three years ago, you lost 30% of your paycheck and then the next year, you lost another 30%,” says a South Dakota farmer about the losses farmers experienced as a result of U.S.-China trade war. The coronavirus pandemic is adding to those losses. https://t.co/eHBRaYXOi8 pic.twitter.com/8ZPh5hwMFp
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 3, 2020

Trump's farmer trade bailout is already more than 2x the size of the 2009 auto bailout https://t.co/VIzez83uy1
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) February 21, 2020

Trump announces he plans to redistribute wealth from the American businesses that actually pay tariffs to farmers who are hurt by his trade war, but whose votes are crucial to his reelection hopes https://t.co/pP4nugouGe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 21, 2020

The Trump administration provided more taxpayer dollars to farmers financially damaged by the administration’s
trade policies than the federal government spends each year on CHIP, maintaining America's nuclear arsenal, or the entire State Departmenthttps://t.co/J49Ci84cqh pic.twitter.com/ezbQvL41qv
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) January 21, 2020

This year alone, Wisconsin will have lost about 800 dairy farms in a downturn that threatens the vitality of rural communities and the state's flagship industry. @journalsentinel https://t.co/eqp5DhJUJJ
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) December 25, 2019

How are Trump’s farm subsidies being paid for?

Trump has given 30 billion dollars to farmers to compensate them for the costs of a trade war he started.

I have yet to hear a reporter or interviewer ask the president ‘how are you paying for that?’
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 15, 2020

Goldman Sachs casts doubt on Phase 1 US China Trade Deal Soybean Purchases: "The $40 billion figure represents a $24 billion (a year and)..an additional $16 billion for at least two years… there would need to be a big increase in soybean exports..https://t.co/khD2EAdk6S
— comparerateskenya.com (@comparerateske1) January 10, 2020

(Reuters) – Days before a US-China trade deal is due to be signed, large Chinese purchases of Brazilian soybeans and a pair of unexpected policy moves by Beijing have dimmed U.S. hopes that China would double its imports of American farm products this yearhttps://t.co/sdy3tMuDbn
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) January 10, 2020

Trump's trade war (reminder: it didn't address IP theft, currency manipulation & anti-competitive subsidies & hurt our farmers, consumers & manufacturers) pushed China to other markets.

Brazil will now overtake USA as world’s largest soybean producer. https://t.co/aatxwKxOF0
— J.D. Scholten (@JDScholten) December 11, 2019

Trump got into a trade war with China

China cut U.S. dairy purchases by more than 50%

818 dairy farms in Wisconsin went out of business in 2019. That's 10% of the state's dairies and the largest decline in Wisconsin history https://t.co/hjDDgntZMk
— Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) January 11, 2020

these payments — billed as help for the nation’s ordinary farmers but which go overwhelmingly to small niche of affluent, white large scale producers — are close to the purest form of trumpism https://t.co/UaZgQSxZlr
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) January 11, 2020

HEARTBREAKING: "Amid Trump Tariffs, Farm Bankruptcies And Suicides Rise" https://t.co/Sw53CKqSWl Via @Forbes #Farmers
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) January 1, 2020

Farmers Got Billions From Taxpayers In 2019, And Hardly Anyone Objected https://t.co/tdsHbeuY7u
— Nada Bakos (@nadabakos) January 1, 2020

And the bailout of farmers, which helped large farms much more than smaller independent farmers is now much greater than auto bailout of crisis. Too late for many as farm bankruptcies have surged and banks in rural areas have closed. That limits access to banking in rural areas https://t.co/4bqSZWvjbV
— Diane Swonk (@DianeSwonk) December 31, 2019

.@MaddowBlog: Farmers’ reality disproves rosy rhetoric from Team Trump.https://t.co/YWzdSayjvd
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 30, 2019

It’s always interesting to see what sorts of government programs face cries of socialism or demands that they be paid for. A $14.5 billion farm bailout doesn’t make the cut.https://t.co/1LQ8Ll1jve
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) December 30, 2019

Trump and farmers

Trump has shafted farmers with his trade wars but many support him anyway. Could that have something to do with white nationalism?

Farmers were given $32 billion bail-out just last year largely due to the anti-conservative trade war started and lost by @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/CDs4vjEzzt
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) August 16, 2020

Farmers stick with President Trump over trade: "We've gone this far" https://t.co/NLcUdE7yAx pic.twitter.com/Gsmiy5TpXZ
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 7, 2019

Half of the Trump administration’s latest trade-war bailout for farmers went to just a 10th of recipients in the program https://t.co/ldqL7oi8vR
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) November 30, 2019

South Dakota farmer Chris Dykshorn took his own life, despondent over what the trade war and flooded fields had done to his family's finances. A chilling, gut-wrenching @anniegowen piece that must be read by all. https://t.co/WeowUpeZX8
— Damian Paletta (@damianpaletta) November 9, 2019

Gulp…

“Almost 40% of projected farm profit this year will come from trade aid, disaster assistance, federal subsidies and insurance payments, according to the report, based on Department of Agriculture forecasts. That’s $33 billion of a projected $88 billion in income.” https://t.co/xziDPhxoHl
— Shawn Donnan (@sdonnan) October 30, 2019

Billionaire West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s farming company took in $121,398 in soybeans subsidies and $3,602 for corn — despite the fact that the median payments for the federal program designed to aid farmers are $6,438 and $152, respectively.https://t.co/Ab6htatHld
— Axios (@axios) October 18, 2019

Make Brazil Great Again?

Trump administration gives crooked Brazilian meatpacker another taxpayer-funded bailout despite bipartisan outrage https://t.co/IwhCKCOzlv
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 10, 2020

If you're following along at home, conservatives are supporting a huge bailout for farmers, to offset a trade war, to buy off rural voters… https://t.co/qoT7ajUzDc
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) January 10, 2020

Trump’s bribing farmers who are losing out because of his tariffs

Trump is bribing farmers to make up for the damage he is doing with his tariffs. I wonder what Republicans would do if a Democratic president gave billions of dollars to primarily Democratic groups like women-owned businesses or HBCUs?

"At $28 billion so far, the farm rescue is more than twice as expensive as the 2009 bailout of Detroit’s Big Three automakers, which cost taxpayers $12 billion." https://t.co/nTsH1I6et9 via @BW
— Mike Dorning (@MikeDorning) September 19, 2019

Size matters. Big U.S. farms get even bigger amid China trade war https://t.co/gBepdToioR pic.twitter.com/ZB79guchvA
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) September 18, 2019

I told you: Farmers won’t blame Trump. https://t.co/hrG6u3ZSjx
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 10, 2019

Trump-loving farmers don’t blame him for the trade war — and instead think the ‘deep state’ is out to get them https://t.co/0cXPsZ4PRb
— Raw Story (@RawStory) September 10, 2019

Farmers are getting bribed with huge bailouts that compensate them for the destruction of their export markets. Businesses are being intimidated by the "exclusion" process that gives some of them a break from tariffs … 2/ pic.twitter.com/t9gVteuuYy
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 10, 2019

The vice president of the North Dakota Farmer's Union, Bob Kuylen, says he lost $400,000 because of Trump's trade war with China. Kuylen says farmers have "pretty much lost all of our markets since Trump took over." https://t.co/jamqfKbQ0H
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 31, 2019

It's heartbreaking to see farmers left behind by @realDonaldTrump. From expanding access to health & mental health care to combatting climate change, there's so much Dems can do to support them. We must make sure these communities are part of our platform https://t.co/kmHW0Ht9Ak
— Grace Meng (@Grace4NY) March 8, 2020