President Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to pursue trade wars with China has increased America’s trade deficit and harmed American farmers who rely on exports to earn a living.

As the president continued to lie this week about how his policies have hurt those farmers, his cabinet secretary responsible for overseeing farming came under fire for calling them a bunch of whiners.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, who previously admitted that U.S. growers were paying the price for the administration’s trade policies and were “one of the casualties there of the trade disruption,” insulted them last week at a Farmfest event in Minnesota.

“I had a farmer tell me this in Pennsylvania,” Perdue told the audience at a listening session hosted by House Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson (D-MN). “He said ‘What do you call two farmers in a basement?’ I said ‘I don’t know, what do you call them?’ He said ‘A whine cellar.'”

That attempt at humor was reportedly met with some laughter but also booing.

Despite the dire effects of his ongoing trade war, Trump has touted his repeated tariff threats against countries like China as beneficial to the country.


“Farmers getting more than China would be spending. Fake News won’t report!” he tweeted on Tuesday, ignoring all of the evidence to the contrary.

Through massive devaluation of their currency and pumping vast sums of money into their system, the tens of billions of dollars that the U.S. is receiving is a gift from China. Prices not up, no inflation. Farmers getting more than China would be spending. Fake News won’t report! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2019

Trump also retweeted a tweet from his official campaign account on Monday morning, suggesting that even though farmers were hurting, they were still behind Trump.

"No battle is over in a minute. If it is, it wasn't worth fighting.” America's great farmers are standing firmly behind @RealDonaldTrump! pic.twitter.com/5uJQWkz4ZL — Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 12, 2019

“No battle is over in a minute. If it is, it wasn’t worth fighting,” one farmer said, in a video attached to the tweet.

“We’re in a hole right now, but I think — if they go as they are — will get evened out,” another farmer said.

The Trump administration on Tuesday narrowed its list of tariffs on some Chinese imports which were set to go into effect on September 1, delaying levies on certain consumer technologies like cell phones, laptop computers, video game consoles, and computer monitors until December 15, “based on health, safety, national security and other factors.”

It is unclear whether this will help farmers in any way.