Trump-Backing Farmer Tells CNN Hurting Business Owners May Turn on Him in 2020: 'The Jury's Still Out'
Michael Petefish, president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, appeared on CNN with host Poppy Harlow to discuss President Donald Trump’s disastrous trade actions. It was not a good interview for the president.
Petefish took Trump to task for starting a trade war.
"It's about specific policies, and we in agriculture are very supportive of trade. And this president has not been,” Petefish said.
The long-time soybean farmer also dismissed Trump’s proposed bailout plan.
“$12 billion damage is just sort of scratching the surface of the economic impact,” Petefish said. “Are we going to keep pumping $12 billion into the farming economy? We need markets!”
Petefish told Harlow that “timing is critical” and Trump could easily lose farmers’ votes over bad trade policy.
“If in three or five years we have a better trade agreement, that won’t matter to most farmers because we’re hurting financially now and we won’t have the ability to run our businesses in the red for the next several years,” he said.
When Petefish was asked if he’d vote for Trump again, he responded, “The jury’s still out on that.”
Watch the interview below:
