Caffeinated Politics

Farmers were duped in the 2024 presidential election. They gave away their votes for Republican promises and culture war talking points only to end up paying the price for their short-sightedness with economic losses. As it was reported last week, those rural voters who fawned over Donald Trump now will be hit by the administration’s tariffs. None of this is surprising as the tariffs were much reported in the election and if voters wanted to be informed there were many credible news outlets in which facts were disseminated.

This all comes to a head as a photo emerged this week in news stories where Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent read a text from Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins concerning growing concern around the Trump administration’s decision to provide a $20 billion financial aid package to Argentina.

“We bailed out Argentina yesterday (Bessent) and in return, the Argentine’s removed their export tariffs on grains, reducing their price, and sold a bunch of soybeans to China, at a time when we would normally be selling to China.”

At the expense of American farmers, many who supported Trump. Well, at least the aid package helped out President Javier Milei, a Trump ally.

After the announcement of the aid from the U.S., Argentina turned around and sold soybeans to China. But as you and I both know those American farmers who have traditionally relied on Beijing to buy soybeans have been frozen out of their largest export market since Trump enacted higher tariffs on China. Those same tariffs that journalists for the newspapers, news magazines, and all-news networks talked about at length last year, and which Republican voters simply dismissed because Dear Leader told them to. Now Trump’s economically unjustified retaliatory tariffs are impacting soybean farmers in the nation.

If only there had been some warning during the election about the harm that tariffs cause. Yes, if only.

The texts continued, saying, “This gives China more leverage on us” and sending a link to the X account of Ben Scholl, a specialty grain trader who chimed in on China’s purchase of Argentinian soybeans after the latter country removed grain export taxes.

Scholl said in a tweet last week “China and Argentina work together for soybeans as Bessent offers to subsidize the Argentine economy. They think you are stupid.”

So where does that leave the American consumer?

The nation was told that tariff revenue from this tax was meant, in part, to address the federal government’s ballooning deficit. But here is the deal Trump will not say out loud. If those monies are used to bail out farmers instead, and you and I both know they will be, that will without doubt unnerve the bond market investors. So, we are back to the bottom line from reporters last year when they demonstrated that any time the natural supply and demand forces of the market are interfered with, that is always going to incur additional costs.

And who pays those costs?

Let us say it together.

The consumers.

In the short-term consumers will likely see lower prices on soybean products, ranging from vegetable oil to soy ‘milk’, a term that is simply laughable, to meat alternatives. But in the longer-term, consumers must be aware higher prices will come when farmers will step back from soybean planting which will create a supply shortage, driving up prices.

If only there had been some warning during the election about the harm that tariffs cause. Yes, if only……