Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / 'I think he's just sacrificing us' Farmers SPEAK OUT on impact of Trump's policies

Transcript

'I think he's just sacrificing us' Farmers SPEAK OUT on impact of Trump's policies · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Trump's Iran war has been a major economic burden
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for a lot of Americans. They're feeling it in grocery stores,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: at the pump, and all over in terms of our
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: high cost of living. But one group is feeling the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: effects twofold, America's farmers. They're dealing with sky-high diesel prices
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and elevated costs of fertilizer. One farmer told MSNOW that
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: it has been his most expensive harvest season to date.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Here's just a little of what he told us.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Does it feel like the president is still disconnected from
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: sort of the realities of what things are like for
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: American farmers right now?
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: I think he's not disconnected. No, I think he knows
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: what it is. I think he's just sacrificing us. I
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: got poor. I got poor, but, you know, I done
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: lost a lot. There's more people out there hurting. It
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: could be worse for me, but at the same time,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: I'm losing. So I don't think the wars that he
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: says he'll never start over there and messing with them
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: people for no reason is benefiting us at all.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Let's bring in MSNOW's Nnamdi Iguonwu, who has been speaking
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: to farmers, and the group chat is still here. Nnamdi,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: what else did you learn?
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: You know, Stephanie, he really laid out to me how,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: for most American farmers, this is just the latest in
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: a long line of challenges that they've had to overcome.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Some of them have been natural disasters, things out of
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: their control. But, you know, I spoke to this farmer
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: earlier this spring during planting season when fertilizer prices, because
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, was pushing
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: him towards the brink of bankruptcy. And now he says,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: you know, he barely recovered from that. You're now in
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: a situation where diesel prices are now resulting in just
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: a significant burn on his pockets, extreme financial strain. And
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: just to put this in perspective, Stephanie, the machine you
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: see right now on screen that is used to till
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: his land, it requires 300 gallons of diesel for a
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: day's full of work. In total, for a full day
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of work, this farm is using 800 gallons of diesel
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: for the 4,000 acres that they managed. That cost him
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: about $ 4, 800 a day compared to last year when he
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: was paying about $ 2, 000. So he says that this is
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: just a crunch on his pockets. And it feels that
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the most discouraging part of it for him is that
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: there's no clear end in sight, that there's no, it
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: doesn't appear that these prices are going to come down.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: So he's just left managing, freaking out a strategy to
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: continue to stave off bankruptcy.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: So what's his hope?
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Another aid bill? Because the war's not ending anytime soon.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I talked to him about that, and
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: he actually– his response was a bit cynical. He said
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: that when fertilizer prices were high, they were supposed to
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: get some help for that. There was supposed to be
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: some temporary relief that never materialized. So now he says
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: while another aid bill would be helpful, what he wants
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: is a level playing field. He wants the president to
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: end conflicts abroad that are leading to heightened prices of
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: fertilizer and fuel. He wants them– to end trade wars
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: that raise that lower commodity prices or make American farmers
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: more vulnerable. That ultimately is the biggest desire, because as
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: you heard him say right now, it feels like the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: president's agenda is sacrificing farmers and no one's paying attention.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Katie, how bad could the situation get as it relates
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: to fuel prices, diesel prices? The war is not ending.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: The war is not ending. I mean, I remember being
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: here a month ago and saying, why are we at
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: war with Iran and when is this going to end?
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: I'm now back a month later asking the same questions.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: I think we're going to be asking ourselves these questions
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: for many, many months to come. And it will only
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: continue to get worse. And what that means is that
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: it continues to get worse for people like that farmer,
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: for the average American person who is just trying to
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: make a living. And we have all seen the polls.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: We've all seen the numbers. Nobody has any appetite for
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: that anymore.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: But the American farmer has been a loyal Trump supporter
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: for these last elections. Will that change?
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: You know, it's a great question. There was another farmer
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: being interviewed on another network, which I will not mention.
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: And his quote that really struck me was for the
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: first time in my adult life. I feel like there's
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: something out of my control, right? And I thought that
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: was really, really important because now even he, who he
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: lives in Texas, I think, can't deny the fact that
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: you're spending $ 5, 000.
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: A day on fuel.
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: I mean, Katie said last month, I was here in July, Stephanie.
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: We were having the same exact conversation. When I come
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: back in November, we'll have the exact same conversation. The
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: difference is diesel will be.
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: At $ 7, 000.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: Which also means ultimately, and if it hasn't already started,
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: it will in earnest this next few weeks, you're going
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: to see it at the grocery store. You're going to
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: see it everywhere because when those things get off the
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: boat from China, whatever it is we want to buy,
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: it gets put on a semi truck or a train
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: and gets shipped across the country. And every one of
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: those costs does not stay there. At the port of
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: Los Angeles or with the trucker himself, it comes to us.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And when costs go up to the consumers, that's not
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the media spinning. There's bad days ahead.
• 4:47
  Speaker 7: That's our lived experience.
• 4:49
  Speaker 6: It's a lived experience. And Donald Trump wants you to believe.
• 4:52
  Speaker 6: him and say that it's all fake news again. But
• 4:56
  Speaker 6: it's not. It is their lived experience. First of all,
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: shout out for interviewing a Black farmer, because Black farmers
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: are a sort of segment of that population that doesn't
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: get as much attention, but they're hurting quite significantly. So
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: for that gentleman to say he feels they're being sacrificed,
• 5:09
  Speaker 6: I could imagine that is true for the... For farmers
• 5:12
  Speaker 6: across the country. And there's another stat or variable that
• 5:15
  Speaker 6: doesn't get reported as much. And that is the increase
• 5:18
  Speaker 6: in the buy now, pay later.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. People don't know how that works.
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: Yes. It's sort of the successor to layaway. And it
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: is costing Americans a significant amount of money because you
• 5:33
  Speaker 6: have to pay a premium in a way to do that.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Buy now, pay later. When the later comes, if you
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: cannot pay in full, the interest rates are astronomical.
• 5:43
  Speaker 6: They're like payday loans. What ends up happening is that
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: you put people further in debt. But the reality is
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: that more and more Americans are having to do that
• 5:53
  Speaker 6: because they literally can't afford day-to-day items, including grocery products.
• 5:58
  Speaker 6: So the ripple effects are substantial.
• 6:01
  Speaker 8: And it's only going to get worse as the conflict
• 6:03
  Speaker 8: in the Middle East continues, especially now that Trump going
• 6:06
  Speaker 8: back and forth as to whether or not he'll strike
• 6:07
  Speaker 8: the Houthis on behalf of Saudi Arabia. There's another waterway
• 6:10
  Speaker 8: there that fuel comes through that now is in danger
• 6:13
  Speaker 8: of being closed. We still don't have the Strait of
• 6:15
  Speaker 8: Hormuz open in any real way. And the midterm elections
• 6:19
  Speaker 8: are rapidly approaching. This is something that's topic number one
• 6:23
  Speaker 8: for so many Americans, farmers or, you know, regardless of
• 6:27
  Speaker 8: your position. Because it's so tough to get to the
• 6:30
  Speaker 8: grocery store or go to the gas station. And it
• 6:32
  Speaker 8: takes such a dent out of your wallet.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: And if the president wants to say, look at the markets,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the economy is great. Let's be clear that people using
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: buy now, pay later do not have significant stock portfolios.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: That doesn't solve anything.
• 6:44
  Speaker 7: Hey, it's me, Rachel Maddow. If you like the story
• 6:47
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• 6:49
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• 6:52
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• 6:57
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• 6:59
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• 7:02
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• 7:05
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• 7:08
  Speaker 7: MSNOW membership. During September, you can sign up for just
• 7:11
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• 7:16
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• 7:19
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• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Hope to see you there.