opinion

Donald Trump's 'patriotism' is what's hurting Wisconsin farmers

On Monday, President Donald Trump attempted to calm fears that the recent penalties he imposed on imported steel and aluminum from China would backfire on America’s farmers.

“If during the course of a negotiation they want to hit the farmers, because they think that hits me, I wouldn’t say that’s nice,” the leader of the free world remarked at a cabinet meeting. “But I tell you,” Trump added, “our farmers are great patriots. These are great patriots.”

“They understand that they’re doing this for the country. And we’ll make it up to them. In the end, they’re going to be much stronger than they are right now.”

Trump’s comments were certainly an odd way to frame the word “patriot.” To the president, the extent of one’s “patriotism” is proportional to how quiet you remain while Donald Trump screws you over.

Yet Trump’s admission that farmers will be damaged by his ill-conceived entry into a trade war simply completes his inevitable betrayal of the agriculture industry.

It was only in January that Trump addressed the American Farm Bureau to reaffirm his dedication to farmers. In Nashville, Tenn., Trump gave a long speech explaining how he helped farmers by signing a broad-based tax cut, by rolling back regulations, by providing more rural Internet service. (And by demanding more respect for the National Anthem, to boot.)

“Farm country is God’s country,” Trump said to conclude his talk.

Yet if that is the case, it appears Trump holds farmers in roughly the same esteem as he holds Rosie O’Donnell and sharks. After his speech, the president quickly moved to increase tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, citing both China’s “unfair trading practices” and China’s theft of American intellectual property.

In retaliation, the Chinese last week announced tariffs on soybeans, sorghum, pork, fruit and a host of other agricultural products that will make it more difficult for American farmers to export their products. This especially harms agriculture-rich states such as Wisconsin, which ships more than $300 million in goods to China per year.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, even before the new tariffs announced by the Chinese, net farm income was set to decrease by 6.7% in 2018. Further, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency has quietly been waiving a requirement that some small oil refineries blend ethanol in gasoline — a move that could harm income for farmers who grow corn for ethanol. (The ethanol mandate itself is a questionable policy, but there is no doubt weakening it could affect some farmers significantly.)

That doesn’t even take into account the damaging effect of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum on non-farm industries. Just in Wisconsin, large companies such as MillerCoors, Seneca Foods and Harley-Davidson will likely see their costs increase, and as a result, consumers will have to pay higher prices for their products. As Gov. Scott Walker noted in a recent column, Neenah’s Bemis Co. may have to begin laying off some of their 5,000 Wisconsin employees if costs rise too much on the raw materials the company uses to make ultra-thin foil packaging.

Of course, the Chinese read newspapers, too, and know exactly how to damage Trump the most. They are targeting farmers knowing that rural Americans are the backbone of Trump’s electoral coalition — if he were to lose farmers, he’d be crippled at the ballot box. (And, commensurately, so will Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections if they don’t take action to stop this escalation of the trade war.)

When more American farms begin to die off, it will be little consolation that Donald Trump considers them “patriots.” Never mind that the original American patriots fought for their independence from a foreign power. Donald Trump now thinks true patriotism is reserved for those relegated to suffer under the thumb of a foreign nation’s rules.

Christian Schneider is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger. Email christian.schneider@jrn.com. Twitter: @Schneider_CM