Trade war anxiety surges ahead of Trump's Midwest swing

[DonViejo]

In a region that’s critical to the GOP House majority, there are questions about whether the White House has any plan at all.

By NATASHA KORECKI 07/26/2018 05:06 AM EDT

DUBUQUE, Iowa — Rural voters helped President Donald Trump win Iowa in 2016. And despite rising concerns about the economic impact of several rounds of tariffs, they’ve been willing to endure the ill effects of his trade policies, trusting he’ll ultimately deliver.

But the president’s sudden announcement this week that he’ll give $12 billion in subsidies to farmers is setting off a new wave of anxiety — a deep sense of apprehension over Trump’s unpredictability on trade and questions over whether the White House has any plan at all.

“I think the hope was that the tough talk, even with some of our allies, would translate into real results on trade,” Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Heley Lehman said of Trump winning over rural voters in Iowa in 2016. “And instead, there really hasn’t been a plan. I don’t think that farmers feel like there’s a plan to get out from where they are now. I think that there’s a lot of people who feel like they’re floating out here at the whim of the tariffs and the trade talk, not knowing what direction we’re going to go.”

Trump will try to assuage some of those worries when he arrives here Thursday before heading to southern Illinois, just two weeks after Vice President Mike Pence also made hand-holding stops in the two states — both of which stand to suffer greatly from a drawn-out trade war. The president will be visiting two Republican congressmen whose districts whiplashed from voting for Barack Obama in 2012 to voting overwhelmingly for Trump four years later — and their fate in November may be closely tied to how local voters feel about Trump’s first two years in office.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/26/trump-trade-war-midwest-anxiety-743413

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Bet most folks do not understand how long it takes to

say sell a ship load of Soybeans to a European Country. Takes months. And that is on a good day. It takes up to ten days just to get Rail Cars in place to be loaded to start with.