As Donald Trump obliviously barrels toward a trade war with China, voters in farm country feel like they're witnessing a slow-motion nightmare come to fruition. Just after China announced new tariffs Monday on 128 products worth about $3 billion, Illinois hog farmer Brian Duncan told the Chicago Tribune:

“We were hoping it was just brinkmanship and cooler heads would prevail. But instead, some of our worst fears seem to be coming true,” said Duncan, who’s also vice president of the Illinois Farm Bureau. “This is significant, real and serious for rural America.”

That was before Wednesday, when China announced another round of retaliatory tariffs on more than 100 products worth $50 billion, including soybeans, cars, chemicals and airplanes.

Amid tumbling stocks and fretting farmers—a loyal Trump voting bloc—the man who sits in the Oval Office demonstrated his trademark casual cluelessness for the concerns of anyone but himself. "We are not in a trade war with China," he declared on Twitter Wednesday morning. And then Trump doubled down on China's latest move with this pearl of wisdom regarding the U.S. trade deficit:

x When youÃ¢ÂÂre already $500 Billion DOWN, you canÃ¢ÂÂt lose! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2018

You're talking about their livelihoods, you dipshit. Yes, yes, they can lose. (Btw, the trade deficit with China is closer to $375 billion.)