(Dobbs) "Their Interests Are His Interests"

The others can twist in the wind.

You might not think that an article last week in The New York Times about something as mundane as soybeans in North Dakota would give us an inner glimpse into the bitter hard-bitten vengeance of the Trump administration. But it does. Straight from the lips of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

That’s what this story is about. Not beans, but bitterness. And profiteering. And partisanship.

The article in The Times is about China’s decision, as retaliation for the president’s high tariffs on their exports, to stop buying our soybeans. From North Dakota or any other state. China slapped 34% tariffs on American soybeans, then stopped importing them, period. Apparently they can get what they need from Brazil.

This is tough for North Dakota farmers. Soybeans are one of the most valuable crops in the state. Before Trump’s tariffs, North Dakota’s farmers were sending 70% of their soybeans to China. Now, if trade talks don’t resolve this crisis, those farmers are looking at bankruptcies, maybe foreclosures. Agribusiness professor Bill Wilson at North Dakota State University says, “I have never seen as monumental as disruption in agriculture as we’re experiencing now.”

The trade talks have been led by Secretary Bessent, and it’s a quote from his confirmation hearing back in January, buried in the middle of the soybean story, that caught my eye and tells us a lot— a whole lot— about how these people think. He was telling the senators how he’s personally tuned into American farming— he even said he listens to farm radio on weekends— and wanted them to know that he takes a personal interest in the farmers’ success.

“Our family is involved in the farming business, in soybeans and corn,” he said, “so I’m very sensitive to this and very up-to-date.” And then came this inadvertent admission, or maybe not so inadvertent: “The American farmers have been very loyal, 90 percent of rural voters voted for President Trump. So they should know that their interests are his interests.”

Think about that. What he was saying was, we’ll help those lucky people in rural states like North Dakota because in the November election, they voted for Trump. So, “their interests are his interests.”

Left unsaid, but already shamelessly practiced by this administration for the past eight months: people in the states that voted against Trump— California and New York and Illinois and the 18 others whose electoral votes went to Kamala Harris— won’t be on the receiving end of any largesse. Their interests are not Trump’s interests.

This is no surprise, of course. Donald Trump doesn’t even pretend anymore to be a president for all the people. He overtly rewards his friends, but as we’ve seen in unrepentant patterns, particularly over the past few weeks, he proactively punishes, or threatens, or smears, whoever he sees as his enemies. They can twist in the wind.

And, when it comes to the unconscionable conduct of this administration, there’s another item from that Times story about North Dakota soybeans that’s also worth mentioning.

Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary who drives the trade talks with China, “owns thousands of acres of North Dakota farmland, worth up to $25 million.” Potential conflict of interest, anyone? Apparently, as part of the government’s ethics rules, Bessent was supposed to sell his holdings. But so far, while he has pledged to, he hasn’t, at least not yet.

This illustrates for the umpteenth time how President Trump and his buddies partake in barefaced profiteering while serving in government. Bitcoins, foreign contracts, merchandise from sneakers to whiskey, and now, land.

Donald Trump takes care of his own. Either you’re with him, or you’re against him. Remember, “Their interests are his interests.” No modern president before him has ever been so blatant about it.

An executive order he signed on Monday proves the point. He declared, “I hereby designate Antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organization’.” An interesting move, right on the heels of the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as if there is any clue at all that the killer had anything to do with the movement called Antifa, which stands for AntiFascist.

Put aside that there is no actual entity called Antifa. If there were, you can bet that its leaders already would be behind bars…. maybe in El Salvador. What’s intriguing about Trump’s order is the wording at the very beginning: “Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.”

Forgive me for thinking he was talking about the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys and the rest of the mob that attacked the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021, calling the 2020 election “stolen” and seeking to overthrow the freely elected new government of the United States of America.

But no, that couldn’t be, because their interests are his interests. So, although convicted of their crimes in court, Trump gave some 1,600 of them “Get out of Jail Free” cards. Apparently, only leftists are part of any “militarist, anarchist enterprise” that would overthrow the government.

This is America under Donald J. Trump. Taking care of his own.

Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 39-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.

You can learn more at GregDobbs.net