At a rally in South Dakota Friday, former President Trump said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had “sided with the communists in China” over U.S. farmers.
“He strongly opposed my protection for our farmers,” Trump said of DeSantis. “I protected our farmers, very simply, and by the way those farmers got big checks.”
When DeSantis was running for Florida Governor in 2018, he stated he didn’t like farm subsidies that would try and offset retaliatory tariffs from the trade war between the U.S. and China at the time.
“I’m not a fan of farm subsidies, and you know, to throw billions of dollars in farm subsidies, I want to get away from doing that,” DeSantis said on Fox Business at the time.
DeSantis signed bills earlier this year attempting to prevent Chinese citizens from buying land in Florida. In a statement at the time, he called the Chinese Communist Party “the United States’ greatest geopolitical threat.”
“I’m proud to sign this legislation to stop the purchase of our farmland and land near our military bases and critical infrastructure by Chinese agents, to stop sensitive digital data from being stored in China, and to stop CCP influence in our education system from grade school to grad school,” DeSantis said. “We are following through on our commitment to crack down on Communist China.”
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