Trump encourages farmers to grow more food for US consumers as April 2 tariffs loom

On Monday, President Donald Trump pushed for US-based farmers to start growing more products for those in the country, citing his tariffs that are slated to go into effect on April 2.

Trump posted on Truth Social, "To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!"


The encouragement from Trump to farmers in the US comes as he has announced that there will be reciprocal tariffs placed on imports to the United States starting in April, where if a country puts a tariff on imports from the United States, the US will tariff those goods with the same tariff as that imposed when the product are imported from that country to the US.

Trump has spoken about a number of different measures to implement tariffs, with a 25 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico and Canada slated to go into effect on Tuesday, with the exception of energy from Canada, which will only have a 10 percent tariff placed on it by the Trump administration.

According to Bloomberg, Trump has already placed a 25 percent tariff on steel as well as aluminum and has said he will take similar steps in different industries having to do with the manufacturing of cars as well as semiconductors.

The tariffs against Mexico and Canada have served as leverage on the issues of immigration as well as the flow of fentanyl coming across the northern and southern border.

In response, Canada and Mexico have pledged greater security measures in their own countries to keep on top of illegal immigration going into the US as well as drug smuggling.