THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
BY ANNIE GOWEN
AND WILLIAM WAN
Struggling dairy farmers who
flocked to an expo in Wisconsin
last month hoped to hear some
encouragement from one of their
own — Agriculture Secretary
Sonny Perdue, a Georgia agri-
businessman whose dad had run
a small farm.
But some came away angry
after Perdue — speaking in a
state that lost nearly two dairy
farms a day last year — remarked
that small farms would probably
not survive as the “big get bigger
and small go out.”
The remark reverberated
across the country, prompting
calls for his resignation from
farm groups, angry editorials
and even criticism from his own
party. Critics said Perdue’s “go
big or get out” line played into
existing fears that the Trump
administration is more interest-
ed in helping large corporations
than the little guys. Perdue later
said he was only acknowledging
the current market reality.
Over the last year, Perdue has
emerged as President Trump’s
key evangelist in bruising trade
wars, traveling the country to
give folksy pep talks to frustrat-
ed farmers who have seen their
incomes drop and exports hit
hard by tariff disputes.
As talks between China and
the United States on a possible
first phase of a trade deal contin-
ue, Perdue could have some wel-
come news for this key constitu-
ency that helped elect Trump — a
third round of bailout payments
on top of the more than $26 bil-
lion already being spent.
Two economists at the Agri-
culture Department, who spoke
on the condition of anonymity
because they were not autho-
rized to speak publicly, said a
third round of payments for
farmers increasingly is seen as
inevitable, particularly if a trade
deal with China is not reached
soon. The amount has not been
determined.
Perdue said Thursday he was
“hopeful” that the pending trade
deal would “supplant any type of
farm aid needed in 2020.” But a
third round of aid could be
crucial to shoring up Trump’s
support in rural America as the
election looms, analysts say.
In more than two years in
office, Perdue, a former Georgia
governor, has perfected the art of
flattering the president — a must
for any high-ranking Trump offi-
cial. He spent more time in a
recent podcast with Trump’s for-
mer press secretary Sarah Sand-
ers lauding Trump than discuss-
ing farmer woes. Trump has said
that what he doesn’t know about
farming, “Sonny teaches me.”
Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s act-
ing chief of staff, said the White
House thinks its support within
the farming community is “over-
whelmingly solid” in large part
because of Perdue’s efforts.
“The president really likes
people who know their stuff. And
it’s been very clear from very
early on that Sonny knows this
industry, that Sonny knows the
people, Sonny knows the issues,
he knows how to communicate
the issues,” Mulvaney said in an
interview. “So there’s a certain
level of expertise that immedi-
ately sort of, you know, moved
him to the head of the class.”
As the head of the USDA,
Perdue has been a disrupter in
the Trump mold. He has worked
to transform the sprawling
$140 billion agency of nearly
100,000 employees by cutting
staff, jettisoning research and
rolling back directives on forest
preservation and food safety.
Perdue has run afoul of Demo-
crats in Congress, child poverty
advocates and science groups,
who worry about his skepticism
of climate change — “I think it’s
weather patterns, frankly,” he
said recently — and moves they
say have weakened the agency’s
research wings.
Internally he’s been praised
for his relentless promotion of
the administration’s agenda. In
recent days he’s been out touting
China’s alleged commitment to
more than double its agriculture
purchases from the United
States — a trade agreement cele-
brated by Trump but not yet
committed to paper, much less
signed.
But patience with Perdue’s
sunny bromides is waning in
rural America, where farm bank-
ruptcies and loan delinquencies
are rising. Before the “big get
bigger” misstep, Perdue was
booed in August in Minnesota
over an ill-timed joke that sug-
gested farmers were whiners.
“He’s supposed to be the head
of the Agriculture Department, a
true representative of farmers,
but it felt like he was pretty out of
touch with what was going on
here in farm country,” said
Darvin Bentlage, 63, a cattle
producer in Golden City, Mo. A
third trade bailout would help,
he said, “but it won’t make us
whole and we don’t want to be
making our money at the mail-
box. We’d rather be making it at
the marketplace.”Farmers worried
When he arrived at an early
morning breakfast recently with
produce growers just blocks
from the White House, Perdue,
72, was all smiles, backslapping
greetings and posing for photos.
“Y’all know President Trump is
trying to stand up [against]
some of the practices that China
has been engaged in for a num-
ber of years,” Perdue told them.
China and the United States
have imposed tariffs on billions
of dollars worth of goods since
Trump imposed the first round
of tariffs on China for allegedly
unfair trade practices in July
2018, profoundly impacting the
global economy.
Some of the farmers who had
gathered to see Perdue said they
were worried and they can’t hold
out forever. Agriculture exports
to China fell from nearly $20 bil-
lion in 2017 to $9 billion last
year, according to the American
Farm Bureau Federation, with
farm bankruptcies rising 24 per-
cent.
The USDA said in an August
report that net farm income is
forecast to increase slightly this
year, but it’s still down more than
35 percent of its high of $136 bil-
lion in 2013.
Bob Mast, president of CMI
Orchards, which grows apples,
pears and cherries in Washing-
ton state, said that because of the
trade war, he’s been able to ship
only a quarter of the cherries he
normally would to China.
“China typically takes the larg-
est amount we grow, and they’re
willing to pay premium for it,”
Mast said. “We have gotten some
relief money from government.
That’s helped, but we need a
resolution to it by cherry season
next year.”
Experts say that many large
farm operations — whom critics
say benefited more from the first
round of trade aid than mom-
and-pop operations — may be
able to hold out longer by tap-
ping into their equity. Others
won’t be as fortunate.
As Perdue himself often says,
“You can’t pay the bills with
patriotism.”
Still, most farmers remain in
Trump’s camp. Trump’s job ap-
proval rating among rural Amer-
icans remains higher than the
country as a whole — by 54 to
38 percent — according to a
Washington Post-ABC News poll
in September.
During his first speech to the
USDA staff in April 2017, Perdue
made a point of stripping off his
suit jacket, tossing away his tie
and rolling up his sleeves.
“Y’all need to know I was a
farmer first,” he said to applause.
“We’re going to get comfortable
in working clothes.”
The next day, he rushed to the
White House to help convince
Trump not to immediately with-
draw from the North American
Free Trade Agreement, clutching
charts and graphs to explain how
farmers would be hurt.
“Secretary Perdue sat down
with him and explained how
important this agreement was to
farmers,” said Zippy Duvall,
president of the Farm Bureau
and a fellow Georgian who has
known Perdue for more than a
decade. “That had a huge influ-
ence on the president.”
Perdue oversees an agency
whose work affects almost every
part of people’s lives — feeding
millions through its food stamp
program, advising farmers when
and how much to plant, protect-
ing America’s forests, formulat-
ing nutrition guidelines for
schoolchildren and safeguard-
ing the nation’s food supply.
He declined to be interviewed,
but his staff sent a list of accom-
plishments, including deregula-
tory moves they said saved
$157 million; opening new mar-
kets for beef in China, pork in
Argentina and rice in Colombia;
and a reorganization they say
places a greater emphasis on
trade and rural development.
Farmers have praised his efforts
to expand rural broadband and
push for simpler rules for guest
worker visas.
Critics have said there is a
revolving door at Perdue’s USDA
in which industry employees
move in and out of the depart-
ment. He has filled his agency’s
upper ranks with lobbyists, in-
dustry executives and people
with whom he has done business
(Perdue is worth well over
$5 million).
Perdue’s chief of staff until lastyear, Heidi Green, was a partner
in Perdue’s shipping business.
His undersecretary for trade
worked for agricultural con-
glomerates. His senior adviser
worked as a lobbyist for the
pesticide industry association.
Meanwhile, morale at USDA,
as measured by a respected sur-
vey, has plummeted amid staff
shrinkage. Perdue especially an-
gered employees with a plan to
uproot workers at the agency’s
National Institute of Food and
Agriculture and the Economic
Research Service and force them
to either move to Kansas City or
quit their jobs. Many voted to
unionize, and at a meeting with
Perdue this summer, they stood
and turned their backs on him in
protest.
Since taking over the USDA,
Perdue’s mantra has been “Do
right and feed everyone.” At the
same time, his agency has tried
to cut funding for Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program,
also known as food stamps,
which helps feed 9.5 million
families with children.
The proposal to limit SNAP
beneficiaries has not gone over
well with Democrats, who see it
as an end run around Congress,
which did not make such cuts
when it passed the mammoth
farm bill late last year.
“I’m not sure what the motiva-
tion was, but it’s wrong. Why
would you address something
we purposefully did not take upin the farm bill?” said Rep. Mar-
cia L. Fudge (D-Ohio), chair of
the House Agriculture subcom-
mittee on nutrition, oversight
and department operations.
Perdue’s staff said that the
proposed changes would “make
major strides in reining in de-
pendence on government assis-
tance.”Chief consoler
As Trump’s reelection cam-
paign looms, Perdue is expected
to continue to play his role as
Trump’s chief consoler to strug-
gling farmers as well as pushing
passage of the new U.S.-Mexico-
Canada trade agreement. “They
recognize that there’s going to be
some short-term difficulties as
we try and hammer out these
agreements, to get fair trade
with China,” Mulvaney said.
Perdue’s close relationship
with the president paid off politi-
cally last year when Trump sur-
prise-tweeted his endorsement
of Brian Kemp, a Perdue ally, in
Georgia’s gubernatorial primary.
Kemp later won a narrow victory
over Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Perdue remains a popular and
a powerful force in Georgia poli-
tics, said Charles S. Bullock III, a
University of Georgia political
science professor. Perdue’s cous-
in, David, was elected to the U.S.
Senate in 2014, and Sonny Per-
due is likely to have a say as
Kemp moves to fill the seat of
Sen. Johnny Isakson, who isstepping down.
During his tenure as governor
from 2003 to 2011, Perdue was an
aggressive free-trade exponent,
with the state opening trade
offices in China, Brazil and
France. Exports grew 77 percent,
according to the state’s office of
economic development.
Ethics questions followed him
throughout his time as governor.
He refused to put his agribusi-
ness assets in a blind trust, and
he was twice cited by the state’s
ethics board — once for failing to
report a trip on a private air-
plane owned by one of his family
businesses, and once for $18,
in excessive campaign dona-
tions.
Critics also point to a last-
minute retroactive tax break
that saved him $100,000 in 2005,
as reported then by the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. Perdue
and his supporters have said that
the ethics criticism was political-
ly motivated and the tax break
benefited all Georgians, not just
him.
“That he and Donald Trump
would be close does not surprise
anybody,” said DuBose Porter, a
former state legislator and for-
mer chairman of the Democratic
Party of Georgia. “I think their
personalities and their vision of
the world is very similar. They
don’t think the rules apply to
them and they see government
as a way to enrich themselves
and their friends.”When he left Georgia for
Washington, Perdue, a Baptist
who once prayed for rain on the
State House steps during a
drought, was given a mission-
ary’s send-off at a church where
his son is now a pastor, accord-
ing to an account in the Baptist
Press. Perdue had told worship-
ers a few days before that God
spoke to him and his wife and
called them “to serve Trump in
his Cabinet.”
Given how frequently Trump
fires his Cabinet secretaries, it is
no small political feat that Per-
due has managed to hold on so
far, said former agriculture sec-
retary Dan Glickman.
“This is an administration
where day-to-day no one knows
what’s going to happen, and yet,
there’s been no scandals. No talk
of Sonny leaving. He seems se-
cure in his job. And the president
actually listens to him,” said
Glickman, who headed the
USDA for six years in the Clinton
administration.
“The way he’s presented him-
self to Trump is as a problem
solver on renewable fuel, on the
trade war. I know Sonny’s not
thrilled about how this impacted
farmers. But he’s not been disloy-
al to Trump when talking about
it. It’s a tight rope to walk.”
[email protected]
[email protected]Jeff Stein, Ben Guarino and Toluse
Olorunnipa contributed to this report.USDA’s Perdue stays on cheery message amid trade wars
Agriculture secretary bids
for another bailout round
as farmers voice concerns
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