You at least, should get back on your meds.
Posted on 05/17/2026 9:59:55 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
The Trump administration and GOP lawmakers are seeking to win over U.S. farmers, a core constituency for the president during his 2016 and 2024 White House wins that has been aggravated by rising prices caused by his trade policies and the Iran war.
Ahead of a midterm election season where the GOP is working to win every vote it can, the White House and its allies in Congress are reaching out to farmers in red and blue states alike.
On the way back from Beijing after his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Trump assured farmers that they would be pleased with the deals he’d made with a major purchaser of U.S. agricultural goods that has cut down on its cash for U.S. soybean and other goods amid a trade fight with his administration.
“The farmers are going to be very happy. They’re going to be buying millions of dollars,” Trump told reporters on his way back from China.
Earlier, Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that Xi agreed to purchase U.S. soybeans, oil and liquified natural gas and other energy, along with Boeing jets.
A White House official told The Hill that the agricultural agreements made “will help our farmers gain unprecedented access into Chinese markets.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Bloomberg on Thursday that he expected China to commit $10 billion to purchasing agricultural products.
But experts say there are questions about whether China will follow up with commitments on promises that may have been made between the two leaders.
“It’s a good step to hear that some agreements were reached and that progress was made on the issue of making sure that farmers have access to markets,” said Brian Reisinger, an author and rural policy expert, adding that “the question with China is always, you know, the devil being in the details with the Chinese, are they going to follow through on their commitments, and are those commitments can be part of a broader framework where there’s more fair and more enforceable trade standards.”
“The reality is that we’re in a unique position here, having arguably America’s biggest adversary also be America’s biggest buyer of agricultural products, so it leaves farmers in a tough spot until they see exactly what’s going to happen,” he said.
Lawmakers had put pressure on the administration ahead of the trip to come back with some wins for U.S. farmers.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said he hoped to see deals come out of China for Boeing, beef and beans. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in a post on social platform X said he had a call with Greer before he traveled with Trump.
In the call, Grassley said he “emphasized the importance of agriculture” and that Greer “understands that importance.”
Soybeans are the top U.S. export to China. The country is also a major market for beef and corn.
China largely scaled back U.S. purchases of agricultural goods as retaliation against the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs and trade tensions, an effort intended to cause pain for a group that has supported the president.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday on CNBC that soybeans “are really all taken care of” from the trade agreement signed between the U.S. and China in October, when Beijing agreed to buy at least 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually for three years.
But Trump also told reporters that an extension of the tariff truce that was agreed upon in October and got China to restart soybean purchases was not discussed because it “wasn’t brought up.”
“We didn’t discuss tariffs. They’re paying tariffs. They’re paying substantial tariffs, but we didn’t discuss anything,” he said.
Republicans are worried that farm communities could not show up at the polls in the fall. The fear is more that the farm vote will skip out on the elections, rather than back Democrats.
“The question for the midterms is whether or not farmers and folks in rural communities see the kind of economic results they need to feel like they’ve got to come out in November,” Reisinger said. “These are not necessarily areas that are going to, you know, suddenly flip Democratic, right, but there are areas where whether voters turn out or not is almost exclusively driven by whether or not they feel like their leaders are fighting for their economic well-being.”
Republicans more broadly are already concerned about turnout in a midterm year, since Trump’s base has come out with less force when Trump has not been on the ballot.
Daniel Swift, senior research analyst for the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said it’s the nature of the deals made with China that is most important.
“A one-time purchase commitment isn’t that helpful for a Midwest farmer, a soybean farmer; they need consistent market access and be able to make long term kind of investment decisions,” Swift said. “It’s good for them, for sure, but it’s not a panacea for farmers that are really struggling under high import costs.”
“No farmer is going to change their behavior for a one-time purchase commitment,” he said. “It’s too damn expensive.”
The pressure for these deals comes as the Senate is set to take up a farm bill passed by the House that would “expand investments in rural communities, bring science-backed management back to our national forests and restore regulatory certainty in the interstate marketplace,” among other things, according to the House Agriculture Committee.
It is unclear, however, when the upper chamber will consider the legislation. Lawmakers are racing to finish up an immigration enforcement funding package before they leave for recess the week of May 25.
The sprawling piece of legislation was the subject of controversy in the House over several provisions aimed at limiting lawsuits against pesticide makers, preventing localities from adopting pesticide regulations and blocking the need for additional permits for pesticide use.
The Senate is expected to make its own revisions to the farm bill, requiring the House to hold another vote on the legislation.
Josh Manske, a farmer and board member of the Iowa Farmers Union, said he wants to see agreements “hard in writing” to ensure China follows through.
“One of the big things I’ve been looking for when it comes to any sort of trade or our markets has just been some stability,” Manske said. “Any business wants some sort of stability and being able to plan long term, and when you have markets that are disrupted in such a way, on one day off the next, we’ve got commitments, we don’t have commitments, that makes it hard to plan.”
He said he was surprised that more hadn’t come out from the talks, and as for the midterms: “The proof will be in the pudding.”
Yes he is. Taking a beating on this thread.
Take a long look around before you shoot your smart ass mouth off in public TCS boy.
Because it is about to get real and you boys are going to find out the hard way being cute will get you attention you dont wish. And that goes for every single one of you boys.
I probably shouldn’t have said that. It’s just....even when I disagree with someone, I try to be respectful.
What is this person doing on Free Republic? Sounds like to me he is making threats.
The article cites Bessent, Greer, Grassley, Daines, and the President.
What’s your objection?
Nope.
Way much fun watching the absolute stupidity you newbies like to spout off.
Your welcome to get off yourself.
Typical for a generational idiot.
Just be careful when you get out into public.
Because you never hear the one that hits you.
You boys are one stupid friggan bunch.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/US-Crude-Oil-Gasoline-Inventories-Sinking-Fast.amp.html
Lets see if you can put two and two together.
When people get hungry, they’ll resort to radical means to survive.
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