‘Chairman Mao': Trump accused of 'socialism' after announcing $15 billion payoff plan to ‘our great patriot farmers’ as tariff war explodes

David Badash
and
The New Civil Rights Movement
May 14, 2019Economy

President Donald Trump continued his new habit of daily massive tweetstorms on Tuesday, starting at 6:15 AM and again focusing on his failed China tariffs "policy." Trump has levied huge tariffs on goods coming into the U.S. from China – tariffs paid by Americans – and China in response announced it will impose tariffs on U.S. goods going in to China, escalating Trump's tariff war.

As USA Today's G. William Hoagland, who grew up on a farm, writes, "agriculture and farm families in the bread basket states have borne the brunt of the trade war."

That war has spanned two years now, and it's crushing many farms.

President Trump, who does not understand even the basics of how tariffs work, repeatedly announces how excited he is that tariffs are flooding the Treasury's coffers. He insists China is paying the tariffs on China's goods, which is not only false, but at this point, ludicrous to keep repeating.

Trump has now decided on a bailout to pay off the farmers, with the taxes raised by his tariffs – taxes paid by Americans, in addition to the farm subsidies already in place for decades.

$15 billion, Trump says, will go to bail out America's "great Patriot Farmers."

"Patriot farmers" is now trending on Twitter.

Last week, in "Trump Is Terrible for Rural America," Paul Krugman wrote in The New York Times, "Trump Is Terrible for Rural America.

Many on social media are mocking the President this morning, accusing him of "socialism!" – the very claim he's decided to wage against Democrats running to beat him in 2020 – along with spreading "Soviet propaganda," and sounding like Chairman Mao.

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