Trump bribing American farmers with taxpayer money to fix trade war damage – Prof. Richard Wolff

US President Donald Trump is essentially buying votes with money from American taxpayers after his aggressive tariff policy on China boomeranged on US farmers, Professor Richard Wolff has told RT.

To compensate for lost crop sales to China, the Trump administration announced aid for farmers, expected to total $28 billion. After China recently stopped buying US agricultural goods, the Trump administration promised to provide even more funds to farmers “if necessary,” and this comes out of Americans’ pockets.

“He is buying votes, there is no other way to say this,” the economist told host Rick Sanchez. “He is using tax money, we all know the desperate needs we have in this country to rebuild the cities, do something for schools and our healthcare.”

He added that spending this “extraordinary amount of money” after ruining the farmers’ market could have been avoided if it wasn’t for Trump’s aggressiveness against China. Furthermore, Wolff explained that Chinese companies will be proactive and other countries, which are more friendly towards Beijing, will come in to replace American producers.

“The notion that the Chinese are just some kind of small player is just silly,” the professor said.

Last week, Trump announced new tariffs on Chinese exports starting September 1. However, this tariff game has already brought him to a dead end, according to Wolff. Now, the White House has just two options and neither are good choices for Trump.

One is that “we all gonna be troubled forever” as the US leader continues to play “Mr Tough Guy” trying to get the US a bigger deal which he is unable to deliver. The second option, Wolff says, is that Trump’s advisors make him engage in a “big, fat, face-saving game” by claiming that the Chinese side made concessions and cut a deal to make him look like a winner.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section