Republican county party chairman Chris Gibbs reportedly spent Tuesday pleading with the president he and his fellow farmers overwhelmingly support to please consider doing the right thing regarding the tariffs currently annihilating his family's 500-acre operation.
Gibbs, who left the Republican Party in 2019 after Trump's first round of tariffs destroyed 30 years of carefully cultivated trade relationships with China and caused his soybean crop to lose a third of its value overnight, said he remains optimistic that the man responsible for what agricultural experts are calling "farmageddon" might eventually listen to reason, despite all available evidence suggesting otherwise.
"I'm waking up at 2:30 in the morning with sweat rolling down my face after 49 years of farming," Gibbs explained, noting that he still believes the president who implemented blanket tariffs making it more expensive to buy seed, fertilizer, and machinery while simultaneously tanking crop prices below the cost of production cares deeply about rural America. "Surely he'll do what's right."
The appeal comes as prices for major commodities including corn, wheat, soybeans, sorghum, rice, and cotton have fallen below the cost of production, creating what economists describe as a "built-in loss" for farmers who continue to plant crops in the unwavering belief that the architect of their financial ruin will suddenly develop economic competency.
During Trump's previous trade war, roughly two-thirds of bailout payments went to the top 10% of recipients, with corporations like JBS receiving over $77 million while family farmers struggled. Sources confirmed Gibbs remains hopeful this pattern won't repeat itself, despite it currently repeating itself.
"The trust we built over 30 years with our export markets is completely destroyed," Gibbs said, adding that he's confident the man who destroyed that trust will eventually restore it by continuing to destroy it. "I just need him to understand what this is doing to us."
When asked why he continues supporting the president whose policies are directly responsible for his impending bankruptcy, Gibbs explained that rural voters overwhelmingly back Trump because of his strong commitment to rural America, which he has demonstrated by systematically dismantling their livelihoods while funneling aid to multinational corporations.
