Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s promised incoming tariffs may cause “irreparable” damage to farmers in his state of North Carolina.
Trump on Wednesday is set to impose reciprocal tariffs on countries worldwide.
The president has warned Americans to expect some short-term economic pain, although critics and commentators fear the worst.
“Anyone who says there may be a little bit of pain before we get things right need to talk to my farmers who are one crop away from bankruptcy,” Tillis told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“They don’t have time. So we’ve got to be crisp on this implementation,” he added. “Otherwise, we could do damage that is irreparable to farmers.”
In the same segment, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) admitted to Raju that he thought his state of Wisconsin “will be particularly hard hit with all the manufacturing and agricultural interests.”
He acknowledged, “Right now, I’ll give him [Trump] the benefit of the doubt, but I am concerned.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), meanwhile, noted of his state of Nebraska: “We’ve already heard from some of our beef processors and popcorn exporters that they’re losing some market share in Europe, so it is concerning.”