GOP 'blindsided' as 'shocked' MAGA farmers realize they’ve 'been had' by Trump
MAGA farmers who have typically stood by President Donald Trump no matter what are "suddenly shocked" that the president has seemingly sold them out as he promises bailout money to Argentina and floats the idea of buying beef from them, according to The New Republic podcast "The Daily Blast."
Host Greg Sargent said that Trump floating the idea of buying beef from Argentina to lower prices in the United States "has caused a huge eruption. GOP senators were blindsided — they were angry that he’s looking to deal with one of the main competitors of U.S. beef farmers."
Matt Hildreth, a democratic operative who runs ruralorganizing.org and whose own family has been in farming for generations, including in cattle farming, said that while farmers have been resilient, the president's latest idea stopped them in their tracks.
"So the farmers who may have been losing money on soybeans were going to make that up on beef," he said. "And now you have Donald Trump, who’s just kind of off the cuff — or seemingly off the cuff — talking about importing beef from Argentina. And that would put American farmers in direct competition with the beef coming up from South America. And that’s going to bring down the price of beef."
As much as farmers thought they were getting ahead of Trump's "uncertainty," Hildreth said, this latest move proved to be the most shocking.
"So when Trump is throwing this uncertainty out of nowhere into the markets, it’s absolutely hitting farmers when they’re already kind of down," Hildreth said, adding "And it’s really pulling out the rug from under them on that last lifeline they had, which was the beef prices that were supporting them."
Hildreth said that farmers were prepared for "short-term pain for long-term gain," but Trump importing beef from South America completely undercuts that.
"It’s really unraveling all of what they see as the sacrifice for a long-term investment," Hildreth said, adding that "farmers and ranchers are really pissed off about what they’re seeing — but they’re starting to see it in a way, they’re seeing it in their own farm operations and their own small businesses, where, regardless of the talking points that they hear from Fox News, they can’t deny what they’re seeing in their bank accounts."
In response to Sargent asking if this will be the catalyst to farmers completely disavowing themselves from Trump, Hildreth says it won't be overnight, but something is definitely afoot.
"They see that Donald Trump has to make a choice. And his choice is either: is he going to screw over his billionaire friends in Argentina, or is he going to screw over the farmer? And he’s picking the billionaire," Hildreth said.
Trump's choices, he added, are causing farmers to rethink their undying loyalty to the president.
"And I think that people are starting to see this corruption — and the fact that the only people who seem to be benefiting right now are Donald Trump’s billionaire friends. And I think that’s something that’s cracking through," he said. " I don’t know if it’s going to be a dam break, but I think the margins are starting to shift in places that I actually would not have expected. And I think that’s a really good thing."
Hildreth said that "there's going to be a record number of bankruptcies in agriculture" that will further erode Trump's support among farmers.
"I don’t think they’re going to be sticking with Trump like he expected them to," he said. They also "know that their workforce is being decimated by Donald Trump’s immigration policies" and not even Fox News can convince them otherwise.
"Fox News would come up with some sort of talking point — they would somehow blame Democrats for something Trump did," Hildreth said. "But that’s not happening anymore. And it’s just so overwhelming that I think people are starting to realize that they’ve been had a little bit."
