Free Trade

The Collapse of Farm Exports Is the Most Underappreciated Story in American Politics

It was a direct result of President Donald Trump's trade war, as even the Department of Agriculture now admits.

Eric Boehm | 9.24.2026 2:00 PM

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As President Donald Trump embarked on his plan to hike tariffs and escalate tensions with America's biggest trading partners, he offered an infamous bit of reassurance.

"Trade wars are good," Trump tweeted on March 2, 2018, "and easy to win."

More than eight and a half years later, both claims have proven to be untrue. And while much of the focus of Trump's trade wars has been on American manufacturing, it is actually American farmers who have been marched to the front lines. For them, Trump's trade wars have been difficult, losing affairs.

Don't take my word for it. Read what the Trump administration's own Department of Agriculture said in a report on the status of the "farm economy downturn."

From 1990 to 2018, the U.S. ran agricultural trade surpluses—meaning that it exported more farm goods than it imported........

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