Summary
Michigan farmer Rebecca Carlson, a longtime Trump supporter, faces bankruptcy as Trump’s funding freezes stall a $400,000 USDA grant for hiring temporary workers.
Carlson, who hoped Trump’s second term would revive her struggling cherry farm, already spent $200,000 preparing for labor under the H-2A visa program.
With funding halted, she risks losing $200,000 more and can’t move forward with critical hires.
Trump’s new tariffs and immigration crackdowns threaten agriculture costs and labor availability, leaving farmers uncertain and frustrated with unmet promises.
Republicans believe in I guess what you’d call individual exceptionalism, in that they always believe that these shitty awful policies are magic missiles that will only target the “bad people” and not themselves or the “good people” they know. I’ll never forget that when they were planning the Muslim ban, a person I worked with was talking about how they’re all the enemy and we should keep them out. When I pointed out that he worked with a Muslim woman, he went “oh, well, that’s different, I know her, she’s a good person” without even ruminating on it for a second. For him, the logic was obvious, the bad policy wouldn’t affect her because he knows her and knows that she’s a good person, so obviously she’d be spared the ill effects of any bad policy. That’s why instead of getting fucking pissed, these people are always confused and astonished when the bad policy they advocated for affects them. “But wait, no, I’m a good person, there must be some mistake”. No, there’s no mistake, dumbass, good or bad person never entered the equation, just in the club or out of the club.