Tariff-battered U.S. farmers are getting exactly what they deserve: ex-GOP insider
David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, believes that American farmers are getting exactly what they deserve if they find themselves getting hurt by President Donald Trump's trade wars.
Writing in The Atlantic, Frum breaks down all the ways that Trump's tariffs will hurt American farmers, who overwhelmingly voted for him in the 2024 election.
"Farm costs will rise," Frum explains. "Farm incomes will drop. Under Trump’s tariffs, farmers will pay more for fertilizer. They will pay more for farm equipment. They will pay more for the fuel to ship their products to market. When foreign countries retaliate, raising their own tariff barriers, American farmers will lose export markets. Their domestic sales will come under pressure too, because tariffs will shrink Americans’ disposable incomes: Consumers will have to cut back everywhere, including at the grocery store."
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Despite the hardships that farmers will endure, Frum argues that they are not deserving of sympathy or financial relief, especially given that "farmers can better afford to pay the price of Trump’s tariffs than many other tariff victims," as they "can already obtain federal insurance against depressed prices for their products."
Additionally, Frum writes that everyone is going to suffer from Trump's tariffs and farmers shouldn't get more special exemptions.
"If a farm family voted for Trump, believing that his policies were good, it seems strange that they would then demand that they, and only they, should be spared the full consequences of those policies," he writes. "Tariffs are the dish that rural America ordered for everyone. Now the dish has arrived at the table. For some reason, they do not want to partake themselves or pay their share of the bill. That’s not how it should work. What you serve to others you should eat yourself. And if rural America cannot choke down its portion, why must other Americans stomach theirs?"