Trump tariffs would have ‘damning consequences’ for Kansas & Missouri farms, business | Opinion
Your representatives in Washington should have spent the weekend screaming bloody hell.
They didn’t.
It’s kind of easy to understand why. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, along with Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, are apostles of Trumpism. The remaining senator from the region — Jerry Moran of Kansas — is very good at occasionally telegraphing a furrowed brow in consternation at President Donald Trump’s shenanigans, but has otherwise shown a tendency to go along with whatever the Republican Party decides.
Still: Their job is to protect you. To serve your interests.
Well, folks: President Donald Trump is doing active harm to your interests — playing games with the livelihoods of the voters in Kansas and Missouri who overwhelmingly supported him.
The president over the weekend executed a game plan he’d been telling us was coming all along. He announced 25% tariffs on America’s closest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, along with a 10% tariff on China. More tariffs are coming on European Union products, he said.
Why? Well, Trump says it’s because of fentanyl and migrants. But honestly, it looked like a straight up domination play from a president whose whole thing has always been about being seen as dominant.
“Canada should become our Cherished 51st State,” he wrote Sunday on Truth Social. If we take him seriously — and who can ever tell with Trump? — it kind of gives the game away.
‘The price that must be paid’
The problem? If he makes good on his threats, you’ll pay the price.
“WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!),” he wrote, loudly. “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”
That “MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!)” should have read “almost certainly.”
Because Canada and Mexico aren’t just America’s biggest trading partners. They’re also the biggest export markets for Kansas and Missouri farmers, aircraft companies and carmakers.
In October alone, Kansas shipped $297 million worth of goods to Canada and $166 million to Mexico. Missouri sold $396 million worth of stuff to Canada, and $382 million to Mexico.
A lot of jobs in both states — held by your friends and neighbors, and even you — depend on those markets.
So does your grocery bill. As the Washington Post pointed out, America “imported $9.9 billion worth of vegetables and more than $11 billion worth of fruit and frozen juices from Mexico last year.”
Tariffs would “have a significant impact on food prices,” Michigan State University economist David Ortega told the Post.
The good news? On Monday morning the Trump Administration announced it would delay the Mexico tariffs by a month. In the evening, the same happened with Canada. The threat is averted — for now.
‘Damning consequences’ to the economy
Where are our senators in all of this? Moran, at least, knows that tariffs are bad for Kansas farmers. He said as much in a closed-door meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in December. Lutnick “listened to his concerns, but offered him no assurances,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Massive tariffs will cause “damning consequences to some sectors of the economy, particularly agriculture,” Moran told global news platform Semafor on Friday.
Schmitt, meanwhile, went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to make the case that Trump’s tariffs are actually beneficial to Americans, pointing to trade deficits with Canada and Mexico. “These countries are taking advantage of us,” he said.
Missouri’s junior senator, it appears, is on the side of “some pain.”
Maybe it will all work out. Or MAYBE NOT!
Trade wars are like shooting wars in several respects, but maybe the most important is this: Once you start a trade war you can’t be certain how it will end. And a lot of damage to the livelihoods and lives of people on both sides will happen in the meantime.
Just know this: Trump has the power to impose tariffs because Congress — a long time ago — voted to give it to him. Congress could take that power away. Even a GOP-controlled Congress.
Our senators could help stop what seems to be coming, if they chose to.
Instead, Kansas and Missouri Republicans seem largely willing to go along as Trump threatens to raise costs and undermine jobs at home. Remember that during the next few months, as your grocery bill starts rising again.
Joel Mathis is a regular Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle Opinion correspondent. Formerly a writer and editor at Kansas newspapers, he served nine years as a syndicated columnist.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 5:06 AM.