Pocan Joins MSNBC to Discuss How Trumps Tariff Taxes Are Hurting Farmers

MADISON, WI – Last night, U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02) joined MSNBC’s The Weekend Primetime with Ayman Mohyeldin, Catherine Rampell, Antonia Hylton, and Elise Jordan to discuss how Trump’s tariffs are especially hurting farmers and the demolition of the East Wing of the White House.

Click here to watch the full interview and find excerpts of Rep. Pocan’s remarks below.

On Scott Bessent‘s Claim He’s a Farmer
Watching a guy who’s worth half a billion dollars cosplay as a soybean farmer is really, really insulting to the soybean farmers in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest. The tariffs that are building up on the farmers… they just can’t sell their (products) like they used to. They don’t have a commodity that they can go overseas. We have zero purchase orders from China for soybeans in Wisconsin, and this cattle issue is on top of giving money to Argentina. Farmers are just really upset.

On Tariffs
A small farmer who has a CSA where 100 families get vegetables and dairy from him. His milk bottles come from Canada, but the raw product comes from the United States. So it’s got a retaliatory tariff. It’s got a tariff coming back, and now it’s almost double the cost of bottles per milk, and that’s affecting that farmer. A lot of farmers, who are family farmers, are also on Medicaid, and they’re about to see a cut on that coming in the next year. So it’s really tough to be a farmer in Trump’s administration.

On the White House Demolition
If you’re a visual learner, watching the East Wing being torn down is what Donald Trump is also doing to democracy right now. You can really tell. It’s personified in the White House, and I think people are looking at this and just shocked. We have not been told anything about it. We have written a letter to ask the Administration to come before us, but Russ Vought, the architect of Project 2025, the guy who’s been firing several hundred thousand federal employees prior to the shutdown, this is just business as usual for these guys. To tear something down and then say, now you’re going to get permission to build it up, it’s just ridiculous and idiotic. People in America are way smarter than what the Trump administration thinks they are on this issue.

On Private Donors Paying for Trump’s Ballroom
This Administration is taking pay-to-play to a new level. We’re watching this meme coin that the President had and then those people who invested get to come and get a tour of the White House. We’re watching this now with a ballroom that is going to be sponsored by many of the big tech companies that we should actually be regulating. There are so many things wrong with what Donald Trump is doing — I don’t have enough fingers to count them. But people look at this and say it doesn’t pass the smell test. I’ve seen some Republicans say, “It’s his money.” No, it’s not. It’s a bunch of special interests who have business before the federal government, and if they’re giving this, they expect something back and not just a nice chicken dinner at the White House. It’s going to be something much more.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.