"…even as Trump’s own Justice Department began investigating the meatpacker, whose owners are Joesley and Wesley Batista — two wealthy brothers who have confessed to bribing hundreds of top officials in Brazil.
Both brothers have spent time in jail over the sweeping corruption scandal.
The company’s exports to China ballooned to more than 24% in 2018, compared to less than 21% the previous year, according to public records, raising questions about the need for the Trump subsidy."
OK, that needs to immediately stop. We don’t need to be sending taxpayer money to corrupt Brazilians who sound like the mafia. Why are we sending tons of $$$$ to these guys where they’re already rich and have already spent time in prison?
U.S. farmers are willing to shoulder a temporary financial burden if it means making America great again. If America is going to be great then we’re going to need good relation with powerful countries, like Brazil. Most people don’t know this, but Brazil isn’t in the United States, and therefore some of their laws are going to be different. In Brazil you have to treat the government like you’re working with the Mafia, so it’s understandable why these hard working meat packers might have had to grease some palms. In Brazil that’s how things are done.
Apparently this company was selling more and more to China! That needs to immediately stop. We don’t need to be seeing China buy things from Brazil, so we have to subsidize businesses in Brazil to block China’s access. It’s the only way. U.S. farmers are comfortable with this move by the Trump administration, as voting for a Democrat would be even worse.
Not all the farmers are happy campers. I have read articles and watched interviews with some farmers who are pissed. Their banks and landlords are starting to put the pressure on. If this becomes a extended trade war I believe that Trump is going to loose voters in the heartland.
I bet a lot of the farmers who voted for Trump because they liked his white nationalist xenophobic rhetoric who are now losing their farms and being told it’s an easier sacrifice than soldiers have to make are regretting their vote. I feel zero sorry for them.
Demographics show that the Trump vote in the rust belt and farming regions had a significant percentage of independents and democrats. And for the most part they voted more against Clinton then for Trump.
Today I saw a interview with some Trump voters in eastern Pennsylvania who said that a major reason that they voted for Trump was his promise to bring in high paying jobs to the area. After more then two years the only jobs created in the area have been minimum wage warehouse jobs. And they agreed that if things don’t improve between now and election day they would be hard pressed to vote for Trump again.
I think most of the crossover vote Trump got was due to illegal immigration. Trump has proved to be a fraud when it comes to illegal immigration, since the best way to end illegal immigration would be to hammer the people who hire them, but then Trump would have to hammer himself.
It’s planting season for most and they are coming off a bad year because of the tariffs. Another bad year and many will fail, go bankrupt. A lot of farmers are selling equipment now just to stay afloat.
