With President Donald Trump speaking in Iowa, Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, told Newsmax on Tuesday how the president's policies are helping farmers.
On "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Navarro explained that Trump was in Iowa to discuss how his tariffs have affected soybean farmers.
"Soybean farmers and corn farmers are often the same people," Navarro said. "They rotate their crops, they grow a lot of that stuff, and they grow a lot of it in Iowa."
"And what happens every time President Trump puts tariffs on – China cancels all its purchases of both corn and soybeans," he added.
"We've got an initiative here at the White House, which is to domesticate the demand for corn through the ethanol program," Navarro continued.
"It's a strategic way and it's the way farmers operate," he said. "It's going to give farmers, who he always has the back of, great comfort."
Navarro said Trump's new initiatives will liberate the president's tariff policies from Chinese blackmail.
"Every time we put the tariffs on, they stopped buying soybeans," Navarro said. "They stopped buying our corn and hurt the farmers. And they let this stuff rot on the docks."
"And then they think that's going to stop the president. And what we did the last time was simply create a program to give the soybean farmers and corn farmers a bunch of money to make them whole.
"But longer term, the strategy is to wean our farmers from Chinese demand so they don't play that card on us," Navarro concluded.
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Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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