When I visited Perham, the town in northern Minnesota where I grew up, this summer, my dear high school friend, a successful farmer, took me on a tour of his 50,000 acres of “God-given blessings” in the breadbasket of America — soybeans.
This bounty has, however, put him at risk since China, the largest buyer of American soybeans, threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on soybeans after President Donald Trump announced tariffs on Chinese goods. In response, Trump invoked his “authority” under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to address what he called “a national emergency.” When China boycotted American soybean imports, Minnesota farmers felt acute financial hardship that drove a wave of bankruptcies in the agricultural sector.
In 2017, during his first term, President Trump led a “China revolution” in the heartland, using American soybeans to make the “Middle Kingdom great again.” But when his second administration announced “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025, China, well-prepared and assertive, blocked the punitive tariff measures in May, eventually forcing the United States to return to the negotiating table.
China is the only country that did not yield to American tariff pressure;: Beijing imposed a 125% tariff on U.S. exports in response to Washington’s 145% tariff on Chinese imports. At the Oct. 30 Sino-American summit in South Korea, Trump said that “he would reduce the composite tariff rate to 47 percent from 57 percent in exchange for China’s commitments on soy purchases,” elevating China to “peer rival” status with the United States.
Beijing has seemingly learned the art of dealmaking with Washington. At the summit, President Xi Jinping told Trump, “I always believe that China’s development should go hand in hand with your vision to make America great again.”
China’s targeted strategic retaliations and surgical pressure points on Trump’s MAGA political base in Midwestern farm country created the intended financial pain on soybean farmers. Indeed, China has learned from Trump’s give-and-take “transactional” approach, executing a successful tactical operation in the American heartland. This, combined with China’s strategic calculus on global policymaking for supremacy, gives China a definite edge. Yet Xi cleverly handed Trump a temporary win-win card to satisfy his voting bloc in the Midwest by resuming soybean purchases.
In the meantime, Beijing has continued to heavily invest in soybeans and other commodities in Argentina, Brazil, and elsewhere. In Washington, the president angered American soybean farmers and Republican senators by providing a $20 billion financial aid package to Argentina, whose soybean exports to China reduced buying from the United States.
History tells us that tariffs as a weapon in trade, especially in an increasingly interconnected global marketplace, risk backfiring. They also stand antithetical to the constitutional legacy of the U.S. tariff policy.
My high school farmer friend in Perham would be delighted to receive agricultural subsidies to compensate him for his losses; the USDA plans to pay out $12 billion for farmers impacted by tariff policies. However, some see this resource transfer as helping one group of Americans over others, further dividing our nation. We’d do well to remember what President Abraham Lincoln counseled: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
As Chinese leaders continue to learn from history to lead the way, can we learn from our own American history, which shows that tariffs have rarely benefited our country?U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., recently co-sponsored a joint resolution to terminate the “national emergency” declared by the Trump White House. Eventually, however, the tariff showdown rests with the U.S. Supreme Court, which by December 2025 could issue a landmark decision about Trump’s use of tariffs.