Trump's second bailout for the American agricultural industry is still theoretical at this point and hasn't even begun, but the farm lobby is already calling for a third bailout.
The American Farm Bureau says that if Trump's trade war persists through the next growing season, they're going to need another bailout to go along with it.
From Reuters:
[American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall] said the Farm Bureau is growing concerned that U.S. farmers could potentially enter a third year with restricted access to key export markets - at a time when the farm economy has been battered by low crop prices and is battling flood damage across the Midwest.
“If we’re not going to get USMCA finished, if we’re not going to get the solution to our problems in China or Japan, then we need to be talking about another payment to try to hold farmers over until that gets done,” Duvall said.
I'm not sure what the USMCA has to do with this as ratifying it would change virtually nothing. But I digress.
I don't find it difficult to imagine that the industry could call for a third bailout next year even if Trump's trade wars are miraculously resolved. Access to markets they've lost access to won't be restored overnight and, in some cases, access may never be restored.
Why should Chinese importers who are sourcing their goods from Brazil resume purchases of crops from America knowing that America is run by nincompoops who could jeapordize the market all over again on a whim?
It will require a years-long public relations campaign from the next presidential administration to regain the trust Trump has pissed away. It could take years if not a decade or longer to fully restore and expand access to foreign markets. And we can't bail out the farm industry every year. At some point, they have to pay the price for their part in electing Trump.
Unfortunately, we're all going to pay for that, too.