If you frequent a farmers market, maybe you should expect a whole lot of soybeans for the foreseeable future.
A photo snapped by The Associated Press’ Angelina Katsanis during last week’s United Nations General Assembly shows a text message sent to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from someone whose initials match those of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
And if it was Rollins, she seemed pretty ticked off.
The Sept. 23 text references Bessent’s plan, publicly announced the next day, for the U.S. to send Argentina, whose right-leaning president has overseen a flailing economy, what is essentially a $20 billion bailout.
“Just a heads up. I am getting more intel, but this is highly unfortunate,” the message began. “We bailed out Argentina yesterday (Bessent) and in return, the Argentine’s removed their export tariffs on grains, reducing their price, and sold a bunch of soybeans to China, at a time when we would normally be selling to China. Soy prices dropping further because of it. This gives China more leverage on us.”
