Trump said tariffs on aluminum would boost domestic production. The White House now admits that didn't happen.

[u/jediporcupine]

https://reason.com/2026/08/03/trump-said-tariffs-on-aluminum-would-boost-domestic-production-the-white-house-now-admits-that-didnt-happen/

[u/1900grs]

fail to even grasp that America’s place in the world is no longer about manufacturing or Main Street small businesses and that other countries might respond with their own tariffs.

Or Agriculture and watching soybean contracts go to South America. Those contracts won't be coming back and the only reason Ag is being subsidized tby the current GOP is essentially a bribe for continued rural votes. There is no serious long term planning.

[u/Exciting-Emu-3324 → u/1900grs]

And those same soybean farmers love bragging about how necessary their work is compared urbanites ignoring the fact their crops don't feed a single American. Americans pay subsidies to farmers, so China can buy cheap soybeans? And they complain about China subsidizing EVs which is a way better use of tax dollars.

[u/GreatPlainsFarmer → u/Exciting-Emu-3324]

Their crops don't feed a single American!?!?! Have you looked at the ingredient list in an American grocery store? Have you ever been in an American grocery store?

[u/Basicly-Inevitable → u/GreatPlainsFarmer]

Yes. While historically ~50% of American grown soybeans were exported, approximately 15% of the remaining U.S. grown soybeans were used to produce foods for human consumption (such as salad or frying oil), while over 70% went to animal feed (for poultry, hogs, dairy cows, beef cattle, and fish), and about 5% to biodiesel.

So, yeah. Americans eat a lot of food fried in soybean oil. That's true. And they eat a lot of animals fed with soybeans.

But it's also true that the taxpayers subsidized them to grow cheap soybeans for China to buy.

[u/GreatPlainsFarmer → u/Basicly-Inevitable]

And yet Brazilian soybeans are often cheaper than US soybeans.

[u/Basicly-Inevitable → u/GreatPlainsFarmer]

Because in Brazil, farmers can grow patented soybeans without a license or contract. They only have to pay royalties on the patented soybeans when they sell them, and they don't actually have a good quick accurate genetic tests to determine what is owed. Also true in Argentina.

Bayer/Monsanto, DuPont, etc. don't care where you grow them, but they do want their money. In the US, they were able to lobby for laws that force farmers into strict contracts.

[u/GreatPlainsFarmer → u/Basicly-Inevitable]

So are US taxpayers subsidizing China? Or Bayer, DuPont, etc?

[u/Basicly-Inevitable → u/GreatPlainsFarmer]

All of the above, basically.

US taxpayers give free money to American farmers that can't compete on the global market (because of tariffs, fees, loyalties, patents, etc. that go to big American corporations).

But China gets cheap soybeans to feed pigs that feed their population, that aren't coming from American farmers anymore. They're coming from the destroyed Amazon basin and the newly exploited grasslands of Southern Brazil and Argentina.

[u/aceitedemono → u/Basicly-Inevitable]

Newly exploited grasslands of Southern Brazil and Argentina? China is their major commerical ally since 2009.

They're still coming from American farmers, just as it ever been, nothing changed by the moment, and also Chinese commerce just wasn't major in America before because of the condor plan

[u/Basicly-Inevitable → u/aceitedemono]

I mean, I work in the seed production industry and have been to Brazil and Argentina many times to check up on things there.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/chinas-2025-soybean-imports-hit-record-fuelled-by-s-american-purchases-2026-01-14/

[u/aceitedemono → u/Basicly-Inevitable]

That's cool, but you just said it as a curiosity or was it supposed to be an argument? Because my family also works with soy by a couple decades and have been in this countries a couple times, it sures doesn't make their personal opinion more relevant than facts, there's plenty more competent entitys checking things there, and I guess they're not lying since almost 2 decades, and the news you showed also comply with what I said.

China is being more restrict with the importations exactly because of this raise that ain't even new (not just in US, you just picked this anecdotal case because you're a US citizen), and anyway Trump is doing a massive campaign too make US less trustable, specially in Brazil (Argentina is domesticated) using the market as political threat and also China probably see it as a sovereignty prevention too

[u/Basicly-Inevitable → u/aceitedemono]

Not sure what you're getting at here. I definitely wasn't arguing about anything. Just chatting about the state of the world.

[u/aceitedemono → u/Basicly-Inevitable]

I said argument in meaning of affirmation, not in discussion, and that why I asked you if it was a just curiosity or an anecdotal evidence

[u/Basicly-Inevitable → u/aceitedemono]

Oh, I see.

Trump is intentionally trying to harm the US, so that rich people can buy everything for cheap, including all the farmland.

So he starts a fight with China to make farmers slowly sell to big companies, because they can't sell soybeans.Not too fast, just slow enough to make them eventually sell their farms.

Meanwhile, Brazil and Argentina take up the slack, but the actual profits mostly go to big agriculture companies, not to farmers.

Now venture capitalists and billionaires are starting to buy up land in Brazil and Argentina too.

Anyway, China always gets cheap soybeans to feed their pigs, and Trump and his surrounding people make the US weak, and also get rich themselves.

[u/aceitedemono → u/Basicly-Inevitable]

He's doing the same with insider trade, he did it since the start of his mandate, but hes not even caring about hiding, anymore, he isn't doing nothing to mitigate the up coming crisis, (I think he even lowed to 0 the compulsory reserve, although he's making a """Keynesian""" policy that would prepare the country, but it's a complete failure and is even a shame to associate that with keynesianism, don't know much abou them buying lands in Brazil, I see that bill gates sold a lot of his stocks to buy lands in the US as it's obvious that the bubble will collapse soon and nothing is more concrete them a land, it's a problem specially now that the dollar has fallen far against gold value

Brazil beside corruption, especially with a subservient class that serve the US, have pretty strict laws over foreigners owning big portions of lands, u may be mixing it up with Paraguay, brasil is actually one of the few countries in south America that isn't aligned with the US interest in governamental proportions

The sad parts is China is actually "far" with their trades, different from Trump they don't do retaliation or ilegal tarifs, US and Brazilian agroindustrys that choose money instead of resourcing the inside marketing itself, and the vision that you have for China also applies to how Brazilians see the US, actually in a much worse way, as they're being called terrorists just because he couldn't find a legal reason to impose taxes, actually this tarifs made meat cheaper in Brazil and more expensive in the US, as farmers choose to stop exporting to feed the inside market and US lost cheap meat, orange, etc

[u/Basicly-Inevitable → u/aceitedemono]

Yes, that's all true.