Trump reveals cooking oil trade strategy

They claim to be serious!

Wisdom from the Stable Genius on Truth Social last week: “I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act. We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution. As an example, we can easily produce Cooking Oil ourselves, we don't need to purchase it from China.”

This is why rural Iowa voters cast their lot with President Trump. He understands cooking oil. It has all sorts of uses, including French fries. Once you unleash our cooking oil industry, China will beg on bended knee.

This is the same guy who sent the CIA into Venezuela last week, and lavished $20 billion on Argentina to bail out the Trump crony president who in turn sold a bunch of soybeans to China. If your bins overfloweth, you have to at least appreciate the irony.

“We bailed out Argentina yesterday and in return, the Argentine’s (sic) removed their export tariffs on grains, reducing their price to China at a time when we would normally be selling to China,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a text to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to the AP.

"We love them. We'll be there for them. They have a great leader, a very great leader,” Trump said.

Sen. Chuck Grassley said he thinks Trump didn’t do the Argentina deal right, but what is done is done.

Oh well.

We take the lumps. Collapsed ag export markets are one reason Iowa will run a steeper deficit this year than previously forecast — over $1 billion — according to the most recent estimate by the state Revenue Estimating Council.

“In short, next year’s budget will be difficult, to say the least,” former budget director Randy Bauer wrote on Facebook.  “That doesn’t bode well for local governments (including schools) in Iowa — and it also will make their promised property tax relief more difficult. It is unlikely they can ‘buy’ their way to property tax relief, meaning local governments will probably take a hit in that legislation as well.”

Gov. Reynolds advises us not to worry since this is all going to plan. Never mind that she registered again, for the seventh consecutive quarter, as the most unpopular governor in the U.S. That takes some doing.

It’s not just the hit to Iowa net farm income. It’s the cutting and flattening of the state income tax. And the Trump tax cuts on top of that. State revenue will drop 9% or more. Just wait until the full impact of those Medicaid cuts settles in.

Trump is unhinged, and so is our state budget.

State Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, is urging the three Regents universities to sign on to a Trump higher education compact that other major universities are rejecting. Trump believes we can put down China with cooking oil. This state is going broke, and our senator is wasting his time and our money harassing universities.

Brazil took our place as the top soybean exporter. In the process, we lose huge chunks of the Amazon rain forest.

Until we get this cooking oil thing tamped down, American farmers need an immediate $10-15 billion bailout. That aid is foreclosed for now because of the government shutdown. The longer it is delayed, the greater our state budget deficit.

The good news is that we won’t need as many acres for row-crop exports going forward, which is all part of the stable genius of being self-sufficient in cooking oil. We will have to monitor the situation in Canada, known for its canola oil, in order to make Iowa farmers great again. Trump said farmers will learn to get by on their own. Not only is he a genius, he is a funny guy. He sees no need to talk with the Chinese leader. No need to worry about a billion-dollar hole in the state budget, either. Trust them. It’s about the cooking oil.