Farmers — one of Donald Trump’s most steadfast voting blocs — are now facing the possibility of being hit harder than nearly anyone else under the president’s new tariff strategy.
Even though the administration backed off on some of the larger proposed tariffs, a 10 percent blanket tariff on goods from about 60 countries is still moving forward. While Trump carved out exemptions for fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, farmers remain anxious that other nations could retaliate by targeting their agricultural exports directly.
Jim Hartman, a beekeeper in North Carolina who produces raw honey, said the tariffs aren’t his only concern. Hartman explained to CNN that he recently lost a $150,000 federal contract that would have supplied his honey to schools and food banks — a program Trump eliminated under the administration’s efforts to trim federal spending.
“For a lot of other local farmers around here, it was a major source of reliable revenue,” Hartman said. “For me, it’s going to cost me $150,000 a year.”
That amount represents nearly half of his yearly income. The new tariffs could drain even more.
The cost of packaging materials for shipping his honey will jump by another five to six thousand dollars, according to Hartman. There’s no budget left to replace worn-out equipment, and hiring more workers is no longer possible.
“We’re not going to hire anymore people, that’s for sure,” he said.
During Trump’s first term, farmers received bailout funds to cushion losses from earlier, smaller tariffs. But that fund is nearly tapped out and won’t be replenished for months. It also remains unclear how much money, if any, will be added when the time comes.
“There’s just not the room for maneuver in the federal budget to do [bailouts],” said Christopher Barrett, an economist at Cornell University. “COVID and the first Trump administration’s tax cuts combined wrecked the [federal] budget.”
Some analysts warn that this round of losses would be far more difficult to recover from. Inflation has already pushed the prices of seed and fertilizer sharply higher, while soybean and corn prices have dropped roughly 40 percent since 2022.
“We have an example of what happened in the past, and it’s a very similar situation, except the farm economy at that time was much stronger than it is now,” Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association and a Kentucky farmer, told Politico. “We don’t have any margin for error. …We’re going to lose a generation of young farmers.”
Trump’s tariffs are hitting farmers hard — in ways you might not expect. This honey farmer voted for Trump three times. Now his supplier costs have skyrocketed, he’s frozen hiring, and he’s lost $150K in revenue from government contracts.
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) April 13, 2025
When asked if he regrets voting for him… pic.twitter.com/LNrexKkGb9
Still, the administration insists it is working to protect an important political base. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently announced trade missions aimed at expanding export opportunities in several countries — including the United Kingdom and India — both of which were hit with new tariffs.
Rollins said Thursday that USDA is already “setting up the infrastructure” to help farmers and ranchers manage short-term economic strain.
When asked whether he would vote differently if he had the chance, Hartman — who backed Trump all three times — admitted, “Perhaps I should’ve considered other options.”
“I never thought I was going to lose this much money this fast,” he said.
Trump’s partial tariff pause hasn’t done much to ease his concerns.
“It’s flip-flopped so many times you can’t take it to the bank,” Hartman said. “Who knows what it will be next week?”
