‘I don’t know how we’re going to survive this.’ Some once-loyal farmers begin to doubt Trump.

Orient, SD farmer Ray Martinmaas spotted his neighbor Mark Cotton, another farmer, and slowed his truck to talk.

“Still too wet?” Martinmaas asked.

“We’re spinning our wheels,” Cotton replied. “This trade thing is going to kill us.”

Like farmers around the country, they were faced with gut-wrenching choices: Plant their corn in muddy fields or file an insurance claim? How much would they receive from the $14.5 million of aid that Trump promised in May to offset their losses from China’s tariffs, and what crops would they have to plant to receive it?

Some rural residents are growing increasingly frustrated with the ongoing trade feuds and wonder how long Trump will call upon farmers to make sacrifices as the country’s “patriots.”

“People are starting to say, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to survive this,’ ” said Martinmaas, who voted for Trump in 2016, but says he’s open to a Democrat like Montana Gov. Steve Bullock this time. “You know, we’re the ones taking the brunt of it in all these negotiations, so they need to be kind of helping us out right now.”

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