Trump’s Record on Agriculture Is Clear: Selling Out American Farmers While China Wins

From the Rural Coalitions Director of the DNC, September 23, 2024:

Trump's Second Term Agenda Promises To Be Even More Dangerous for Small Farms and Rural America

Donald Trump is headed to Pennsylvania today to talk about agriculture, but there is no disputing his failed record and reckless agenda. Under Trump, family farms shuttered while billionaires and big corporations got rich and China took advantage.

The facts are clear:

Farm bankruptcies soared to record highs under Trump, but dropped steeply under the Biden-Harris administration, according to data from the American Farm Bureau.

Trump’s reckless policies devastated farmers in Pennsylvania and across America – and enriched the Chinese Communist Party.

• WESA: “Amid Trump's Trade War, PA Farmers Fight To Survive In An Uncertain Market”

• Pennsylvania farmer: “My breaking point with [Trump] came when I realized his trade war had caused 20% losses for the 750-acre family farm I help run in western Pennsylvania.”

• CNBC: “President Donald Trump’s tariff policy is affecting farmers and manufacturers in Pennsylvania”

• CNN: “Trump vowed to cut the US trade deficit, but instead it’s reached historic highs. He wanted China to buy more American products, but that hasn’t happened as much as Washington would like. And he’s made almost no progress on big structural issues that American companies care most about.”

• Axios: “Trump's trade war on China was a failure in every possible way”

• PIIE: “China bought none of the extra $200 billion of US exports in Trump's trade deal.”

Trump sided with Big Ag and foreign corporations over small American farmers.

• CNBC: “As small U.S. farms face crisis, Trump’s trade aid flowed to corporations”

• Bloomberg: “Trump Pledged To Help Small Farms. Aid Is Going To Big Ones”

• New York Times: “What was meant to be a financial lifeline for struggling farmers has been widely derided by critics as a corporate bailout for big agriculture companies and those who live in metropolitan areas but own farms in rural America. The program has also been attacked for providing financial support to American subsidiaries of foreign agriculture companies”

On Trump’s watch, American jobs left for China – and he incentivized it.

• Reuters: “Offshoring rolled along under Trump, who vowed to stop it”

• New York Times: “Manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level in more than a decade, a sign of fallout from President Trump’s trade war.”

• Politico: “Manufacturing jobs — even before Covid-19 hit — continued to plunge throughout [Trump’s] presidency, especially in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.”

• ITEP: “The Trump-GOP tax law enacted in December 2017 creates clear incentives for American-based corporations to move operations and jobs abroad”

A second Trump term would be even more dangerous for American farmers.

• Trump will send the cost of crop insurance skyrocketing, just like he repeatedly attempted to do as president.

• Trump promises to exponentially increase tariffs, without needing any Congressional approval, which will cost middle class families nearly $4,000 a year and devastate farmers.

• The Hill: Trump’s Project 2025 “proposes ending ‘safety nets’ such as the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, which pay farmers of selected commodities when the prices of those commodities fall below a predetermined level.”

Harris-Walz 2024 Spokesperson Joseph Costello released the following statement:

“Despite all his lies and pandering, Donald Trump used the White House to give handouts to wealthy corporations and foreign companies at the expense of family farmers, drive farm bankruptcies to record levels, and sacrifice small American farmers as pawns in his failed trade war with China. While Trump’s policies were an indisputable failure, a second Trump administration would be so much worse for American farmers, threatening to skyrocket the cost of crop insurance and impose a $3,900 middle class tax hike. Vice President Harris actually grew up in the middle class. She believes in investing in rural America and creating the opportunity for working families to get ahead, with middle class tax cuts, support for small farmers so they can compete, and an aggressive plan to hold Big Ag accountable when they rip off consumers.”