Farmers hit Trump on trade in new ad

U.S. farmers voiced their opposition to President Trump’s recently announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in an ad set to run for at least the next month on morning news programs that Trump is known to watch.

In the ad from Farmers for Free Trade, a coalition of agriculture groups, American farmers argue that a trade war sparked by Trump’s tariffs could hurt their businesses.

“The crops that we grow here on this farm are exported across the globe,” Montana farmer Michelle Erickson-Jones says in the ad.

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“Policies that restrict trade would be devastating for farms like ours,” she says.

“Someday I’d like to pass the farm down to my boys. Mr. President, protect free trade and keep our agriculture economy strong.”

The advertisement aimed at Trump will run on cable news channels such as Fox News and MSNBC, during the “Fox & Friends” and “Morning Joe” time slots, respectively, two morning shows the president has been known to frequently watch in the past.

The ad will run on other news websites and on rural agriculture programs across the country.

“We depend on free-trade policies to maintain our export markets,” Erickson-Jones says in ad.

“We’re very optimistic about the economy under President Trump; however, we’re very concerned about the trade policies from Washington.”

Last week, Trump announced sweeping tariffs of 25 percent on imports of steel and 10 percent on aluminum. 

U.S. agriculture is worried that other countries will retaliate against their products in response to Trump’s tariffs decision. 

“Farmers are increasingly worried about what they are seeing from Washington, D.C. on trade,” said former Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a co-founder of the Farmers for Free Trade, in a statement.

“When the U.S. engages in a tit-for-tat fight with our trading partners, farmers pay the price,” he said. 

“While we need tough trade enforcement, we need to be smart about avoiding global trade fights that hurt American agriculture.”

The ad from the free-trade coalition is the second time in recent weeks that critics have opted to lobby the Trump administration through “Fox & Friends,” long thought to be the president’s favorite morning show and one he frequently quotes on Twitter. 

Earlier this week, it was reported that Trump called a host of the news program for an opinion during a discussion on veterans’ care, while a Navy sailor pardoned this week by the president appeared on the program just last week.