Although many of the swing states that now-President Donald Trump carried in 2024 were quite close — Trump’s victories in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan were in the low single digits — he won rural areas by double digits. Farmers supported Trump in big numbers.
But according to The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani, farmers will be hit hard by the steep new tariffs that Trump is pushing.
In an article published on May 8, Lakhani details new research that the group Food and Water Watch (FWW) shared with The Guardian. FWW examined the effects that tariffs had on farmers during Trump’s first presidency, noting the implications for the more severe tariffs he favors now.
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“The winners and losers of Trump’s first tariff war strongly suggest that bankruptcies and farm consolidation could surge during his second term, with major corporations best placed to benefit from his polices at the expense of independent farmers,” Lakhani explains. “New analysis by the non-profit research advocacy group Food and Water Watch (FWW), shared exclusively with The Guardian, shows that Trump’s first-term tariffs were particularly devastating for farmers in the MAGA rural heartlands. Farm bankruptcies surged by 24 percent from 2018 to 2019 — the highest number in almost a decade — as retaliatory tariffs cost US farmers a staggering $27bn.”
FWW’s report is titled “Trump’s Last Tariff Tantrum: A Warning.”
According to FWW, “When accompanied by comprehensive domestic policies, tariffs can be a successful tool to bolster agricultural markets and support small producers. However, the 2018-19 trade war offers a warning of the impacts of a renewed trade war in the absence of such policies.”
Ben Murray, a senior researcher at FWW, warns that farmers are “likely” to suffer more hardship during Trump’s second presidency.
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Murray told The Guardian, “President Trump’s first-term trade war hurt independent farmers and benefited corporations, offering a warning of what is to come without a plan to help farmers adjust. Trump’s latest slap-dash announcements will likely further undermine U.S. farmers while benefiting multinationals who can easily shift production abroad to avoid high tariffs. Farmers’ livelihoods should not be used as a foreign policy bargaining chip. Chaotic tariff tantrums are no way to run U.S. farm policy.”
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Read The Guardian’s full article at this link.
