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Trump-voting farmers beg for government handout [1]

['Daily Kos Staff']

Date: 2025-09-06

According to MAGA, students saddled with overwhelming debt didn’t deserve student loan forgiveness. People suffering from food insecurity didn’t deserve government assistance. All of those fancy know-it-all researchers curing cancer didn’t need government funding. But when they’re the ones hurting? Suddenly it’s time for Uncle Sam to bail them out.

Back in March, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: “To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!”

But now, according to Arkansas station KAIT, hundreds of farmers gathered in Brookland to beg state leaders for help.

Chris King, a Woodruff County farmer, reminded the crowd that Trump had once told him, “I love you,” and now he wanted to see “the fruit of that love.” (Ew.)

King explained that this was his 39th harvest, and he had never seen conditions so dire.

“I have never been as worried as I am now about whether or not my kids and grandkids will be able to carry on,” he admitted.

President Donald Trump announces his first round of tariffs in April.

The problem, he said, is simple: They can’t sell for profit.

“I just would like to see somebody help us get our markets back. We need our exports, and we just need to be paid for what we do, and that’s not happening, and we’re in real trouble,” King said.

But who cost King and his buddies those exports in the first place? Trump, the man they happily elected. Why should anyone feel sorry for them, funneling more blue-state resources to people who insist on punching themselves in the face?

Scott Brown, a farmer from Biggers, was just as gloomy. He warned that “you are going to lose 25-30% of the farmers in this country if they don’t do something.”

And he said that Trump’s tariffs are the final straw.

“I think the tariffs are the ice cream on the cake of a perfect storm. When you try and sell a product, okay, U.S. soybeans leaving New Orleans without the tariff to China are cheaper than Brazilian soybeans, at the current market. But when you put the tariff on top of them, Brazilian beans are cheaper.”

Maybe you shouldn’t have voted for the guy who ran on tariffs and promised they’d be fun? Because for these farmers, Trump’s “fun” has meant lost markets, collapsing prices, and neighbors talking about going under.

And there’s the crux: U.S. consumers don’t need these farmers for cheaper groceries—we can get them from overseas. Trump can’t raise tariffs on imports much higher without driving up grocery prices even further, which would crush Republicans at the ballot box.

Related | They voted for Trump—now they're reaping his crappy jobs market

Meanwhile, farmers are being slammed with Trump-induced inflation, Trump-induced labor shortages as immigrant workers are deported or driven away, and Trump-induced cuts to the very programs that once gave them a cushion. Their hospitals and clinics haven’t closed yet—but give it time, that’s coming, too. So much fun, they’ll be tired of all the fun.

Brown conceded that, in the short term, “they have no choice but to mail us a check.”

He also insisted that no farmer likes taking taxpayer dollars, but “nobody wants to go broke, nobody wants to lose everything. Long term, we have to have options, markets, and places to sell our product.”

How about no? Students didn’t get debt relief, even though millions were promised a fresh start from crushing loans. Hungry families are watching food pantries close as pandemic-era assistance dries up. Cancer researchers see their funding slashed, teachers are told to buy their own supplies, and veterans fight tooth and nail for basic benefits. But these Trump-voting farmers think they’re owed a taxpayer bailout?

If they want relief, maybe they should stop voting for politicians who keep kneecapping them while distracting them with culture war nonsense about trans kids. Zero sympathy. None. So they can fuck off.

Now, if the state of Arkansas wants to bail them out, that’s fine. But Republicans hold overwhelming supermajorities in Little Rock, with 29-6 in the Senate and 81-19 in the House. So good luck with that.

May they have the day they voted for. Fun, right?

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