Ben Cline got to play dress-up for a photo-op on Friday at an Augusta County cattle farm, where he wrote on Facebook that he “got to see firsthand their cattle operation and discuss how we can better support Sixth District family farms and the next generation of farmers in Congress.”
I’d love to hear what kind of feedback he got from the cattle farmers on hand about Donald Trump’s plan to boost imports of beef from Argentina, and his push to U.S. producers to lower beef prices – as they’ve struggling to find new markets for beef due to losses stemming from his dumb tariffs.
“It’s really just a kick in the nuts. Come on, President Trump, this is America First policy? No,” Kyle Hemmert, a cattle rancher in Kansas, told The New York Times.
That’s one way to put it.
People in rural areas don’t like being talked down to by people in big cities wearing suits, ties and caked-on makeup.
Consider this, from Trump, who got 61.1 percent of the vote in the Sixth District, where the livestock sector produces $169 million in annual sales, about a third of livestock sales statewide, according to the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture:
“The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil. If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years ‒ Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!”
That was Trump, talking down to cattle farmers here in the Sixth and elsewhere – in essence, telling y’all that the beating you’re taking in your business will continue until morale inproves.
Ben Cline, of note on this, has yet to blurt a sliver of a thought on what Trump’s Argentina First beef policy is doing to cattle farmers in the Sixth.
Other Republicans elsewhere, for their part, and to their credit, have not been holding back.
“I have no idea who is telling our great president, our America First president, that this is a good idea. Because, honestly, it’s a punch in the gut to all of our American cattle ranchers, and they are furious and rightfully so,” said Marjorie Taylor Greene, nominally a Trump ally, but who has been showing a bit of a maverick streak of late, in an interview with Tucker Carlson this week.
“The president would be better off if he’d keep his mouth shut on that issue and not tweet about it,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, another person that Trump won’t be able to easily dismiss as a “far-left liberal,” though, you can be sure, he has his folks working on that.
“This isn’t the way to do it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, being about as blunt as one can be, noting that Trump’s Argentina First beef policy has “created a lot of uncertainty in that market. I’m hoping that the White House has gotten the message.”
Doubtful.
“They’re fighting for their life. You understand what that means? They have no money, they have no anything. They’re fighting so hard to survive. If I can help them survive in a free world, I happen to like the president of Argentina, I think he’s trying to do the best he can. But don’t make it sound like they’re doing great,” Trump said, pressed on Argentina First in a gaggle with reporters on Air Force One this week.
Argentinian farmers are struggling, but so are U.S. cattle farmers, who have had to deal with the fallout of Trump’s disastrous trade war with China, the fourth-biggest trade partner for the U.S. beef industry.
U.S. beef sales to China dropped from $125 million per month in March to $8 million per month in July, a drop of more than 90 percent, according to data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
How many votes did Trump get in Argentina in 2024?
It’s worth taking a look.
Maybe Ben Cline heard some of this as he was on his photo-op tour.
The important part would be, if it registered with him in any way, shape or form.
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Chris Graham
