Cattle rancher John Boyd, Jr. accused President Donald Trump of single-handedly “ruining American agriculture" in his second term.
“Biden didn't do this. Former president Obama didn't do this. These are the president's policies. These are his tariffs,” said Boyd, who is also a soybean farmer and founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association. “In fact, the highest time ever I sold soybeans in my … 43-year career, was under president Obama for $18 a bushel. Under President Trump, I sold some of the lowest at seven bucks a bushel during his first presidency … [and now] he's done the same thing.”
Boyd slammed the administration for announcing tariffs against China, which impacted U.S. soybean sales, as well as fertilizer sales from Canada and U.S. corn sales to Mexico, which have plummeted in the last year.
“These are these president's policies that are ruining American agriculture,” said Boyd. “And then on top of that, he … sold out America’s farmers and gave $40 billion to Argentina. And he promised us $12 billion in relief.”
Boyd cited Trump’s recent stump speech in Iowa to sell his unpopular policies to help Republicans ahead of the midterms, where Boyd said Trump claimed he “just gave farmers $12 billion.”
“I want to tell all of the viewers that are watching this: Farmers have not received a dime of the $12 billion. And that's what the president does. He says things and there's really no accountability.”
Boyd went on to accuse the administration of barring him from a recent “farm meeting” at the White House.
“They told me I couldn't attend the White House meeting. Something about they were moving away from DEI. Man, I'm talking to you from my farm. There's no DEI on my farm,” Boyd said. “My cattle eat the same amount of hay. My tractor runs the same amount of diesel fuel and I have to be able to produce a crop here just like everybody else.”
Tur reacted with disbelief at Boyd’s claim. “I'm sorry. What? There was a farm meeting at the White House and you tried to go? Did they turn you away at the door, or what happened?”
“I reached out to the White House to attend, and that's the feedback that they got,” Boyd answered. “They said they were moving away from the Black farmer issue. They were moving away from DEI and small farm issues, and they were focusing on large scale white farms and corporate farms because they produce the most food, is what this administration said.”