(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart says President Trump’s new import tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China will have a negative impact on Iowa’s economy. “It’s already hit the corn and soybean market and we can see what’s happening to the stock market,” Hart says. In a post on his “Truth Social” platform, President Donald Trump said the tariffs were being imposed on “external product” and the great farmers of the United States should get ready to start making a lot of products to be sold INSIDE the U-S. Trump closed the message by writing “Have fun!” Hart says the price for a bushel of corn fell by 22 cents by midday today (Tuesday).

“That doesn’t seem like fun to me,” Hart says. Hart says after Trump imposed tariffs in 2018 and 2019, other countries which had been buying American farm commodities started buying elsewhere. Trump authorized 61 BILLION dollars in tariff relief payments to American farmers during his first term. “Farmers are a proud bunch. We want trade, not aid,” Hart says. “This president got by with it last time. I don’t know why, but if he thinks he’s going to have the taxpayers bail us out again, that’s just poor leadership.”

Hart farms with her husband in Clinton County, near Wheatland.