Trump has been on the record as saying American’s WILL have to suffer from his actions against China on trade…
The suffering IS occurring….
So is the loss of money, jobs and livelihoods ….
The trade war has cost farmers potential Chinese orders for the corn-based fuel as well as for a byproduct that is used as animal feed. Now, the refinery exemptions are compounding the financial pain — and threatening political consequences for the president, who won this state and its six electoral votes in 2016.
“I supported Trump in the last election. Today, if the election were held, I don’t think I could vote for him,” said Kelly Nieuwenhuis, 60, a corn and soybean farmer in Primghar, about 40 miles east. “It’s definitely growing, the displeasure with the Trump administration.”
The president won Iowa handily three years ago, beating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by nearly 150,000 votes, and the Midwest remains a pillar of his reelection strategy. Many of those grumbling about Trump today concede they are unlikely to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate next year.
But Democrats flipped two of the state’s congressional seats in the 2018 midterm election, and Barack Obama won Iowa twice, so Republicans are attentive to any signs of eroding support. In recent days, amid a rising impeachment furor, the White House has scrambled to midwife a compromise between ethanol advocates and the oil industry.
The discontent in deeply conservative northwest Iowa has its roots in the president’s confrontation with China, which farmers initially backed. Many bore the scars of China’s trade practices, including its rapacious attitude toward American intellectual property. In 2016, a Chinese businessman, who had been caught digging in a corn field northeast of Des Moines, pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing proprietary corn seeds from DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto.
But this year, as hopes for an agreement with China rose and fell, and multiple rounds of Chinese retaliation for U.S. tariffs destroyed their export sales, farmers’ support curdled into impatience….