\n\n“With the presidential election now just over two weeks away, President Donald Trump has mounted a frantic effort to ensure America’s farmers, a key Trump voting bloc, will support his flagging re-election campaign. In short, he’s shoving piles of cash their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> details<\/a> the “gush of funds” Trump has promised U.S. farmers\u2014with more on the way. Some say total farm subsidies could top $40 billion<\/a> this year. The Times<\/em> says<\/a> the figure may be as high as $46 billion. Either figure would be a record.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Non-partisan observers have also labeled them political handouts. “The Government Accountability Office found last month that $14.5 billion of farm aid in 2019 had been handed out with politics in mind,” The Week<\/em> reports<\/a>. The Times<\/em>, citing the same GAO report, also highlighted by some Democrats, shows farm subsidies last year appeared to be directed to “big farms in the Midwest and southern states,” mirroring at least some segments of Trump’s farm base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That same base has been hit hard by tariffs championed by Trump. In 2018, I predicted<\/a> (as did many others) that Trump’s international trade tariffs would spur retaliatory tariffs and harm U.S. farmers and consumers in the process. They did<\/a> just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But because Trump’s tariffs hurt U.S. farmers, and because he wants them to vote for him again, he’s sending them cash. That cash even has a name. Last year, one farmer NPR food-policy writer Dan Charles spoke with says<\/a> he and his fellow farmers have taken to referring to the tariff-induced subsidies as “Trump money.””<\/p>\n\n\n\n