President Donald Trump appeared at a press conference in Iowa on Thursday and sat beside some green “Make Our Farmers Great Again” hats, a redesign of his famous patriotic campaign hat to appease those his trade war is hurting the most.
Trump is sitting next to a stack of hats that say "Make Our Farmers Great Again." pic.twitter.com/veAvHqAfUs
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) July 26, 2018
“It’s the John Deere colors, actually,” Trump said, referring to the agricultural machine manufacturing company and holding the cap up. “‘Make Our Farmers Great Again!’ Isn’t that great?”
The hats are not available on his official website store just yet, but he has done this before. On a trip in September 2017, when Trump visited victims of tropical storm Harvey in Texas, he was photographed sporting a USA hat that eventually was sold on his campaign website for $40 each.
The money made from those hats went directly to his re-election. So, that’s correct. If these hats go up on his store, Trump’s fix is to have farmer’s hurting for money because of his policies give him money.
Update 8:50am CT, July 27: The “Make Our Farmers Great Again” hats are in the store and available to purchase now.
The appearance of this particular hat comes just one day after Republicans criticized him over an emergency, multi-billion dollar federal “temporary relief” package for American farmers hurt by the president’s ongoing trade war with the world. Republican lawmakers voiced their concern on Wednesday, in view of November’s upcoming midterm elections, that farmers and manufacturers in key red states are being hit hardest.
“The administration clobbers farmers with an unnecessary trade war then attempts to assuage them with taxpayer handouts,” Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said. “This bailout compounds bad policy with more bad policy.”
One agricultural group’s study estimates that corn, wheat, and soybean farmers have collectively lost $13 billion as China and Canada place retaliatory tariffs on the Trump administration’s foreign imports duties—a hole that the president’s $12 billion band-aid is supposed to plug.
Unfazed, the president was keen to reaffirm his position on Thursday that the trade war would pay off and was necessary, insisting that the U.S. holds “all the cards.”
“We don’t have one trade deal that’s any good. Between NAFTA, which was a horrible deal and we’re getting close on that, but we’re making it good,” he said. “But the biggest one of all happened yesterday, other than China, the E.U., a thing called Europe.”
On Wednesday the president met with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss trade, announcing that they had agreed to work towards “zero tariffs.”
“We just opened up Europe for you farmers,” Trump continued, speaking to the crowd in Iowa and sat proudly beside his new merchandise. “You’re not going to be too angry with Trump, I can tell you.”