It's a little hard to feel sorry for members of the cult of con artist and ignoramus Donald "Rump" Trump who are now about to get it in the shorts with his self-destructive tariffs on Chinese goods. After all, he made it clear that his reactionary "America First" program would involve tariffs on foreign products. What he didn't make clear was that there would be retaliation on a number of U.S. export industries. Among the many exporters to China that will face retaliatory tariffs are soybean farmers in the Midwest. As Joshua Green of Bloomberg writes:
"In the 2016 election, Trump won eight of the 10 states with the largest soybean acreage, all of them in the Midwest. Many of those same states are now host to some of the country’s closest races for Senate (Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota) and governor (Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota). Political experts say the economic impact of Chinese tariffs on farmers may play out at the ballot box in November. 'The farm community is a pretty powerful voting bloc,' said Jennifer Duffy, who follows Senate and governors races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. 'If they are unhappy, they turn out in big numbers and can really change things in a hurry.'” (emphasis added)To get the full flavor of the states most impacted by the soybean tariffs, consider this map from the article, which shows red Trump states from 2016 (click to enlarge):
As the article notes, not just Congressional seats are at stake, but several governorships (Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa) and statehouses, where so much Rethuglican mischief originates, are up for election.
“'This could be very good for Democrats,' said Duffy. 'Trump started this. It makes Republicans’ bid to hold the Senate harder. And it might even make Republicans start looking over their shoulder at places that shouldn’t be competitive, like Nebraska and Mississippi, where the Democrat, Mike Espy, is a former Agriculture secretary.'” (emphasis added)Soybeans are just one of the export industries impacted by the retaliatory Chinese tariffs -- pork, an array of fruits, cars, whiskey and dozens of other products will face tariffs. As Ms. Duffy said, "Trump started this." The question remains whether members of the Trump cult will stick with him as he sticks it to them.
BONUS: As Steve Benen points out, it's not just tariffs that are shafting Trump cultists.
BONUS II: Charles Pierce wraps things up --
...[T]his is Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. ZZZ as to why voting for a vulgar talking yam because he makes you feel good about hating all the right people is a very stupid way of deciding who should be president. I wish the folks in Iowa and Nebraska and the Dakotas all the best but, Jesus, people, vote your glycine next time. We’ll all be better off.
