Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, criticized Trump’s “go-it-alone approach” and the trade war’s “long-term devastating damage.” Brian Thalmann, president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, attacked Trump for saying farmers were doing “great” again. “We are not starting to do great again,” he said. “We are starting to go down very quickly.” Others expressed concerns that trade will be lost forever. “There is a lot of stress out there,” Perdue conceded at the listening session, and attempted to reassure farmers that markets will return once a deal is negotiated. But he also scolded the crowd of thousands: “If your solution is to forget about what China has done and sell and trade with them anyway with cheating, then I just fundamentally disagree with you.” The agriculture secretary also appeared to indicate that farmers were whining too much, joking, “What do you call two farmers in a basement? A whine cellar.” The Minnesota Farmers Union responded in a tweet, writing, “Farmers are not ‘whining;’ their ability to make a living is threatened. We won’t stop talking about it until this reckless trade policy stops.” Trump has talked about coming up with multibillion-dollar farmer subsidies that could cushion the cost of his trade war. The Trump administration has already rolled out two rounds of farm bailouts expected to total $28 billion. No other industry hurt by the trade war is receiving taxpayer aid.

As they have learned in the last two years, our great American Farmers know that China will not be able to hurt them in that their President has stood with them and done what no other president would do - And I’ll do it again next year if necessary! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2019

Wertish cautioned that the aid would undermine public support for all federal farm subsidies, noting that it’s already being blasted as a “welfare program.” Nine of every 10 counties that voted for Trump in the 2016 election — 2,300 counties — have received the farm trade subsidies, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the Environmental Working Group. EWG data also showed that the largest farms are taking the lion’s share of the subsidies.