The Bitter Harvest of Trump's Trade Wars

[Atreus]

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/10/ohio-soybean-farmers-left-high-and-dry-as-trumps-tariff-tornado-obliterates-china-market.html

As an Ohioan, I take no pleasure in watching my state’s farmers struggle. Our fields are part of who we are, generations of families have worked them, through droughts, floods, and markets that never seem to stay still. But what we’re seeing today isn’t a natural disaster. It’s a man-made one, a direct consequence of Donald Trump’s reckless trade policies, now coming home to roost.

Ohio’s soybean farmers are staring down a crisis that should have been obvious from the start. China, which usually buys nearly a third of our national soybean crop, hasn’t purchased a single bushel this year. Not one. Why? Because Trump’s chaotic tariff war triggered a 35% retaliatory tariff on U.S. soybeans, effectively pricing us out of our biggest market. While the self-proclaimed “deal-maker” was busy picking fights, countries like Argentina and Brazil were busy picking up our lost contracts.

The result? Billions in lost revenue, collapsing rural economies, and farmers forced to store unsold crops or rely on government bailouts they never wanted. The party that preached the gospel of the free market now props it up with taxpayer subsidies, a bitter irony that’s not lost on anyone paying attention.

It’s hard not to feel a bit of schadenfreude, many of these same farmers voted for the man who sold them on “America First,” only to watch him hand their market share to foreign competitors. But beneath that irony is sadness. Because these are hardworking people who believed a lie, a lie that tariffs would make America strong again, that bluster equals leadership, and that expertise is overrated.

This is what happens when politics becomes performance art and policy becomes a punchline. When we elect leaders for their outrage, not their outcomes. The pain Ohio farmers are feeling today isn’t just about soybeans, it’s about what happens when we stop valuing competence and start worshipping slogans.

The truth is, you can’t tariff your way to prosperity. You can’t insult your trading partners into respect. And you can’t make America great by breaking the very backbone of its heartland economy.

Maybe, just maybe, this bitter harvest will be the wake-up call rural Ohio needs. Because if we keep planting ignorance, we’ll keep reaping ruin.

[pfitz59]

1. Just say 'no' to bailouts!

No commie socialist deeds for sturdy Ohioians. Trump uber alles!