Screenshot / CNN
CNN interviewed three struggling Pennsylvania farmers to get their thoughts on how the trade war is affecting their bottom lines and whether they are planning to vote for Trump in 2020.
Bill Boyd, a life-long farmer, is still working the same dairy farm he grew up on. He admits that dairy is “barely profitable” right now due to Trump’s trade war with China. Boyd doesn’t support the President’s trade tactics calling the war a “bad idea” and admits that the cost to farmers is “the profit.”
Trump campaigned heavily in Pennsylvania making many promises to the farmers there. It is one of the key states that got him elected.
“I think he’s sort of backstabbing the main people who got him into office in the midwest. All those midwest states helped to vote him in and also Pennsylvania, and he’s just let us down.”
However, when Boyd is asked whether he would vote for him again, he says he would if there isn’t a “better alternative.”
Reap what you sow I guess, eh?
— Brian Burch (@brian_burch) December 8, 2019
Another farmer, with a mountain of soybeans sitting unsold in his barn, also voted for Trump in 2016. He supports the trade war, even though he is still searching to find a buyer for his harvested crop. He admits that he will likely vote for Trump again in 2020.
A third farmer, Jesse Poliskiewicz is a former Democrat that voted for Trump in 2016. He complains that prices have been going down. When asked about his plans to vote for Trump, Poliskiewicz explained that he does not plan to vote for him again, but he doesn’t know who is going to vote.
"I think he's sort of backstabbing the main people who got him into office in the midwest."
This Republican farmer in Pennsylvania says the US-China trade war is a bad idea and that it's hurting farmers across his state. https://t.co/iFsYqwKsiB pic.twitter.com/Lsr4zArQgW
— CNN (@CNN) December 8, 2019