Agriculture Secretary Rollins Promised Tariffs Would Help American Farmers. Now She Says They Need a Bailout.
The bailout would simply redistribute wealth from American businesses and consumers to farmers. Here's a better idea: end the tariffs.
For months, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has been one of the Trump administration's loudest cheerleaders for tariffs.
That has always been a bit surprising, since the tariffs imposed during President Donald Trump's first term were anything but good news for farmers. When China reduced its purchases of American agricultural output (soybeans in particular), American farmers were suddenly left with crops they couldn't sell. In an attempt to smooth things over, the Trump administration authorized a $28 billion bailout in 2018.
Despite that recent history, Rollins has spent months insisting that this time it will be different.
In an interview with Fox News in April, just a week after Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement, Rollins praised the president as the "ultimate dealmaker."
The tariffs, she said, would "completely realign the American economy around putting America first" and would open more markets to American farm products.
Two months later, she was still pushing the same message. Trump's tariffs were going to level the playing field for American farmers and ranchers, she told Bloomberg. She posted that interview on Twitter and wrote that "America has been taken advantage of for too long on the world stage! [Trump's] tariffs are finally shifting this dynamic, putting our [agriculture] products and farmers & ranchers first."
But something funny (and very predictable) happened on the way to all that tariff-driven prosperity that Rollins promised. American farmers are once again bearing the brunt of the tariffs.
"The consequences are already rippling through the economy. Prices for fertilizers, tractors and farm equipment are rising. John Deere, the nation's largest farm machinery maker, said last month tariffs on steel and aluminum would cost the company $600 million this year," CNBC reported earlier this month.
Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association, said last month that "farmers are standing at a trade and financial precipice" as they face "extreme financial stress" due to the trade war. Soybeans are America's largest agricultural export, but retaliatory tariffs imposed by China are now making South American-grown soybeans more competitive, and American farmers are having a tough time finding buyers.
Is that enough to make Rollins reconsider her views on tariffs? No. But it is getting her to suggest even more bad policy.
Earlier this week, Rollins told the Financial Times that the Trump administration is preparing another bailout for farmers harmed by the tariffs and trade war.
"There may be circumstances under which we will be very seriously looking to and announcing a package soon," Rollins said. She added that funds for the bailout would be drawn from tariff revenue.
On Thursday, Trump seemingly confirmed those plans. "We're going to make sure that our farmers are in great shape, because we're taking in a lot of money," the president told reporters in the Oval Office.
The details remain unclear, but such a bailout would merely redistribute tax dollars paid by American consumers and businesses to those farmers. Like any government bailout, it is likely to help those with the best connections and resources, rather than those most harmed. That's exactly what happened during Trump's first-term farm bailout.
The quick switcheroo from tariff cheerleader to farm bailout advocate ought to raise a big question about Rollins' qualifications to continue being the secretary of agriculture. Was she shamelessly lying when she promised that tariffs would benefit American farmers, or was she so incompetent that she failed to foresee the obvious consequences of the administration's policies?
It has to be one or the other.
