Dear John,

Some of you may have heard that this week, the Trump Administration announced a $40 billion taxpayer-funded bailout to Argentina. Let me break it down for you. 

It all starts with President Trump’s trade war. Since President Trump launched us headfirst into an international trade war, China (our largest customer for soybean exports) stopped purchasing soybeans from the U.S., and instead started buying them from Argentina and Brazil. Prior to this trade war, China was purchasing over 50% of American soybeans. Now that they have taken their business elsewhere, American soybean farmers and Minnesotan soybean farmers, are left scrambling to find markets for their products.   

The next thing to note is that Argentina's President Javier Milei has launched Argentina into a manufactured economic crisis, faced multiple investigations into his corruption and attempted to seize total unchecked control of the country (sound familiar, anyone?). Conveniently, he’s also up for re-election at the end of this month. Folks, it’s hard to see this bailout as anything other than a bribe for the Argentinian people to re-elect a corrupt president who has cozied up to President Trump.  

Most of all, it’s an absolute betrayal of American family farmers. And Trump knows it! At a time when U.S. family farmers desperately need aid, he’s bailing out their competitor with their own tax dollars. It’s one of this Administration’s most egregious, corrupt and unethical acts thus far. Not to mention an extremely inappropriate use of Presidential power.  

As if that wasn’t enough, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also issued a statement to states this week, warning them not to issue SNAP benefits if the government remains shut down. Thanks to this Administration, rural Americans and family farmers are already losing health care benefits, seeing rural hospitals close and losing business to international competitors. At a time when grocery prices are sky-high, Republicans' threat to take away food assistance is just another attack on hardworking families. Especially since Republicans STILL haven’t come back to Washington to work with us to end this shutdown.  

I don’t know how ANY of this constitutes “America First.” And this Administration has shown time and time again that they have zero regard for family farmers and hardworking Minnesotans. What I do know is that I won’t stand for any bailout of other countries while American families need help. I’m fighting with all my might for Minnesota’s farmers and hardworking families. And I’m not afraid of a fight.  

 
An announcement from my office:

On Monday, October 20 at 5 PM CST, I’ll be hosting a telephone town hall to answer your questions.  

This is a virtual event because I will be in Washington fighting to reopen the government. 

You can register for the town hall here.  

Here’s what else I’ve been up to this week: 

Standing up for our federal workers  

This Administration continues to use federal workers as political pawns.  
It’s unacceptable.  

I sat down with AFGE this week to discuss how we can continue to protect Minnesotans who serve Minnesotans. 

Holding a press conference with House Democrats to end the Republican shutdown  

Democrats are in Washington ready to end this shutdown – meanwhile, Republicans can’t even be bothered to show up to work. 

It’s time they stop whining, get back to Washington and reopen the government. 

Behind the scenes:

Each week, we have a meeting with all the Democratic Members of Congress. This week, I spoke before the caucus about Trump’s disastrous ag policies and the Argentina bailout.  

Afterwards, I had a chance to catch up with my friend and colleague Rep. Melanie Stansbury – you can watch our recap of the meeting here.  

Until next time,
 

Angie Craig

Member of Congress