President Trump and two of his top cabinet members are in Cedar Rapids today. The visit may be consequential for Iowa agriculture since the two secretaries are Wilbur Ross, Department of Commerce and Sonny Purdue, USDA.
They are going to Kirkwood Community College to show the President how technology in farming is allowing producers to grow bigger crops with less input, and in an environmentally friendly way.
The President knows he won because of the votes from the rural reaches of this country, and he should be able to see and smell the agriculture in Cedar Rapids, sometimes called the city of five smells with its many processing plants for grain and ethanol.
President Trump has talked tough about trade and how unfair the North American Free Trade (NAFTA) agreement is for the United States. He also removed the country from the twelve nation, nearly completed Trans Pacific Partnership because he says he hates multilateral trade deals.
Tonight, during his rally in Cedar Rapids, it is likely he will bash other nations and bring the crowd to its feet many times with his ?America First? rhetoric. But reality and reality TV are a long way apart.
The President appears to be listening to Ross and Perdue on renegotiating NAFTA. Both of them opposed dumping the 20 plus year old agreement, but allowed him to save face by saying we are going to renegotiate it.
The pre-negotiations are underway, and it looks like the agriculture ministers of Canada and Mexico are linking arms with Secretary Perdue to make sure the treaty is modernized, but not minimized or manipulated by other interests.
