Enjoy Your Trump Groceries!
By 
The reverse Midas, everything Donald Trump touches turns into the pile of untreated sewage in front of my office building on campus that has been there since at least Thursday afternoon when I discovered it and a colleague reported it to the Facilities Department. This includes your groceries as this nation imports more food than ever before:
The United States, known for being a global agriculture powerhouse, has never imported more food than it is right now.
Inbound shipments of everything from avocados to coffee and sugar are expected to drive the country’s agriculture trade deficit to a record $49 billion this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its trade outlook report. At the same time, America’s most widely grown crops have been losing overseas markets over the past decades.
It’s a stark turnaround for a nation that once used its abundant food supplies as a tool of statecraft, with the U.S. now facing a future of persistent agricultural trade deficits. The country imported more food than it exported in 2023 and 2024. Before then, the only other annual deficits were in 2019 and 2020, during President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, and several years before 1960.
Trump has pledged 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods beginning March 4, along with an additional 10% tax on China’s goods. That could make things worse, raising the cost of importing food if countries retaliate and farming goods get caught in the crosshairs.
American imports of farm goods are forecast to climb 6.5% in the year ending Sept. 30 to $219.5 billion, with inbound shipments of avocados, orange juice and coffee accounting for much of the increase, the USDA said. Exports are forecast at $170.5 billion, 2.2% lower than a year earlier.
“Avocado imports from Mexico, the largest commodity in terms of import volume, are expected to increase on strong demand and improved growing conditions,” the USDA said.
Pricey cocoa and sugar also are adding to the import bill. And while some grain exports are expected to rise, traditional American crops have been losing allure overseas for years, with Russia overtaking the U.S. as the world’s top wheat shipper, and Brazil surpassing the U.S. as the biggest exporter of corn, cotton and soybeans.
The Stones said that you can’t always get what you wanted, but Trump voters are very much getting what they wanted. America First bitches!